CHINA REPORT RED FLAG

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP04-01460R000100270001-8
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 96
• Document Creation Date: December 21, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 19, 2008
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: June 9, 1982
• Content Type: REPORT

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JPRS 81015
9 June 1982
China Report
RED FLAG
No. 7, 1 April 1982
IFBISI
FOREIGN BROADCAST INFORMATION SERVICE
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JPRS 81015
9 June 1982
CHINA REPORT
RED FLAG
No. 7, 1 April 1982
Translation of the semimonthly theoretical journal of the Central
Committee of the Chinese Communist Party published in Beijing.
CONTENTS
Several Questions on Current Economic Work (pp 2-10)
(Zhao Ziyang) .....................................................
Be a Clear-Headed, Staunch and Promising Marxist (pp 11-14)
(Editorial Department) ............................................ 19
Readjust the Agricultural Sector, Improve Economic Results
(pp 15-19) 25
(Bai Rubing) ......................................................
Mr Li Dingming and the Idea of Better Troops and Simpler
Administration (p 19)
(Huang Zheng) ................................................... 35
It Is Imperative To Uphold the Basic Principles of Marx'
Theory of Reproduction-Part Three (pp 20-25)
(Deng Liqun) ...................................................... 38
On Goal, Base and Speed (pp 26-27)
(Jin Wen) ......................................................... 49
What Is Credit Inflation, and Is It the Same as Currency
Inflation? (p 28)
(Chen Wenlin) ..................................................... 53
Several Questions Which Call for Attention in Literary and
Art Creation at Present (pp 29-31, 43)
(Wen Hua) ......................................................... 55
A Brief Discussion of the Theory of 'Natural Rights' (pp 32-36)
(Gu Chunde) ....................................................... 61
- a - (III - CC - 75]
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Strengthen Socialist Education in the Countryside (pp 37-40)
'(Fan Kang) ....................................................... 69
Change Habits and Customs and Make the Environment More
Beautiful (pp 41-43)
(Yang Rupeng) .................................................... -77
False Historiography Serving Regional Hegemonism--Commenting
on Some Fallacies in the Historiography of Vietnam (pp 44-48)
(Dai Kelai, Xu Yongzhang) ..................... .. ........ 82
It Is Necessary To Pay Simultaneous Attention To Planting
and Protecting Trees (inside back cover)
(Li Mingfu) ...................................................... 90
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SEVERAL QUESTIONS ON CURRENT ECONOMIC WORK
Beijing RED FLAG in Chinese No 7, 1 Apr 82 pp 2-10
[Speech by Zhao Ziyang at the national industrial and communications work
conference on 4 March 1982]
[Text] The current national conference of industry and communications has
discussed and studied measures for such issues as improving the economic
results and doing a good job in this year's industrial production, communi-
cations and transport. Experiences in this regard have also been exchanged.
According to everybody's view, the meeting is a successful one as it is held
at an early date and it has a clear and definite guiding thought and a
prominent central theme. Everybody maintains that this meeting will give a
great impetus to this year's industrial and communications work. Now I
would like to talk about the following questions:
I. On the Question of Raising Economic Results
On the basis of last year's remarkable achievements, our country has made
further progress in industrial production since the beginning of this year.
Judging from the results of January and February, the trend in production is
good, and it is completely possible to fulfill this year's target of ensuring
a 4-percent increase and striving for a 5-percent increase in total indus-
trial output over last year. What we are afraid of this year is not about
the problem of growth rate but about the failure to pay attention to economic
results. It has been reported that there are still many cases of raising the
quotas of output value at each level. While presenting the target of ensuring
a 4-percent increase and striving for a 5-percent increase, the central
authorities have already taken into consideration the speed of growth plan-
ned by various provinces and have incorporated this factor in the state's
unified plan. However, certain. localities and departments, while handing
down the quotas, have raised the quotas at each level regardless of possi
bilities. Everybody wants to achieve a greater output value and speed up the
growth. This is beyond reproach. During the period of readjustment, our
country's national economic development must maintain a steady speed and we
must not think that the slower the speed, the better. The issue is: We must
unify speed with results. We must strive to attain the goal of having good
results as well as a rapid increase in output value. It is certainly a good
thing if such speed can be further accelerated; but if we only pursue output
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value and pay no attention to results, such a "speed" will do us more harm
than good. Rather we should work in a down-to-earth manner so that our work
will not be hindered by our seeking false reputation. The main problem now
is not negligence of output value, but negligence of results. Certain
localities and units have made much greater efforts to increase output value
than to raise economic results, or they have only verbally claimed to raise
economic results but have taken no practical and effective measures to attain
the goal. The State Council maintains that it is necessary to emphasize
correcting the guiding thought in industrial production. This is to say that
we must stress economic results and a solid, not inflated, speed. This issue
of having a correct guiding thought applies not only in industrial produc-
tion, but also in capital construction, circulation and other fields of the
national economy.
For a long period, we ignored benefits in blind pursuit of increased output
in industrial production and did a great many foolish things. In the years
after 1958 and during the "Great Cultural Revolution," the output figures
were considerably inflated and waste was quite serious. The lessons in this
respect are very profound. This problem continued after the smashing of the
"gang of four." Although last year the figures were less inflated than in
the past, many localities reported sharp increases in output values during
the fourth quarter. This also caused some problems. Various provinces
should figure out the extent of exaggeration in their growth rates in order..
to be sober-minded. Blind pursuit of increased output will necessarily
result in the stockpiling of large quantities of goods. According to the
data of the State Statistical Bureau, 58 major products were excessively
stocked by commercial departments at the end of 1981. Output increase of
certain products may be advantageous from the view of the part, but the
result may be completely opposite if seen from the whole. For example, in
east and northeast China where energy was already in short supply, some
localities greatly overproduced for export ferroalloy and other products
that consume large amounts of energy. This forced the east and northeast
China power systems to generate more electricity than their capacity, or "eat
their corn in the blade," as the saying goes, in order to meet the power and
energy requirements. Such practices, if continued, will not only aggravate
the dislocation but will also result in the recurrence of the past phenomena
when "industry reported good news, commerce reported bad news, warehouses
became overstocked and the financial revenue was zero." In the end, the
banks were asked to issue notes to cover the deficits and the state and
people suffered from it. If it was inevitable for us to do some foolish
things in the past because of our lack of experience, we should have learned
from them and become wiser. We must not repeat those foolish things of the
past. Comrade Xiaoping has pointed out that to pay attention to economic
results is an extremely important policy in all work. We should tap our
potential and quicken our pace in raising the economic results. Last year
at the Fourth Session of the Fifth NPC, the State Council put forth 10
principles for economic construction. The key point of these principles is
to raise the economic results. Now that the NPC has approved these prin-
ciples, we must fulfill them by our actions; they must not remain just words.
This year we must have a major change and open up a new phase in raising
economic results.
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When we talk about economic results, it is first of all necessary to make
clear one main point, that is, that we should spend as little living labor
and as few materials as possible to produce still more products that meet
society's needs. The first part of this sentence means that it is necessary
to be as economical as possible and to reduce as much as possible the
expenditure of living labor and materials. The second part of the sentence
means that it is necessary to create more property for society, the key here
being that the products must "meet the needs of society." It is not suffi-
cient just to talk about producing more products, since that would not affect
economic results. If the products are not what society needs, then the more
we produce of them, the greater waste there will be. Therefore, the products
we produce, including their quality, color, design and quantity, must meet
the needs of society and be readily marketable. These needs are realistic
and coincide with the actual 'level of investment and purchasing power.
Society's needs are many-sided; they include the production needs and con-
sumption needs and consist of demands in both of these two major categories.
These needs change continuously with the development of production and con-
struction and the improvement of the people's livelihood; there are different
needs for different stages and each individual locality has its special needs.
Whether we produce medium- and high-grade products or popular goods of
dependable quality, we should always meet the needs of society. Only when
the products meet the needs of society can the labor expended for these
products win society's approval and can we have valuable and useful products
instead;of having wasted labor and useless articles. Our plans should pro-
ceed from the overall situation and take into account the future and the
past; they should.reflect as accurately as possible society's demands and
meet the needs in the development of society. Only thus can we enable the
national economy to develop in coordination with plans and in a proportional
manner. If the products do not meet society's needs and are not readily
marketable, there can be no proportionate and coordinated development. In
our economic work in the past, what we neglected was exactly this fundamental
point; consequently many problems arose. Producing more products that meet
the needs of society with the expenditure of as little living labor and as
few materials as possible is precisely what basic socialist economic law
demands, and what the law of developing the national economy according to'
plans and in a proportional manner calls for. A socialist country should
study the needs of society well and continually satisfy the needs of society;
this is the aim we communists strive for. This guiding ideology must be
firmly established. In handling economic work, the whole party should con-
centrate its efforts on saving as much living labor and as many materials
as possible and on meeting the needs of society. It should make efforts to
find new ways of raising economic results.
The question of raising economic results involves various aspects and is a
considerably difficult question. As to why it is not easy to succeed in
meeting the needs of society, there are two main reasons: One is limited
understanding. Society's needs cannot be seen clearly at once, and it is
especially difficult to see them clearly beforehand. It is usually when
commodities go out of stock in the markets that their shortages are noticed,
and it is usually when the warehouses are filled with stockpiled commodities
that their excessive quantities are discovered. This demands timely
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understanding of the needs of society, understanding of market changes and
trends, and improvement and enhancement of the level of planning work. The
other reason concerns the question of interest relations. We should
ascribe definite interests to enterprises and recognize and take care of
the definite interests of localities. Failing to recognize such interests.
will result in eating "in the same canteen as everyone else," in which
situation anyone can become irresponsible. When definite interests are
ascribed to them, it will be easy for departments, localities and enter-
prises'to determine their economic activities according to their interests.
Some of the policy decisions of departments, localities and enterprises meet
the needs of society, but others run counter to these needs. Although some
products may not meet the needs of society, their production is carried on as
usual; the plants share profits as usual; the localities receive a greater
percentage of the profits and the commercial and supplies departments do not
have to worry about overstocking of these products in the warehouses after
their purchases because in the end they are completely taken care of by state
finance. Consequently, falsehoods about output value continue. protractedly
without ever being resolved. Therefore, fundamentally, besides the demand
that enterprises improve their business management and raise their scientific
and technological level, raising economic results involves the questions of
economic systems and economic structures and depends on the readjustment of
economic structures and the reform of economic systems; there is no other
way out. However, we cannot just wait and hold off our actions until the
economic systems have been reformed and the economic structures have been
readjusted. To solve this problem under the present situation in which
system, structures and prices are all irrational, it is necessary to bring
into full play the role of the leadership, namely, by strengthening guidance
in planning and administrative intervention and strengthening supervision and
inspection. An important task of the planning and economic commissions at
various levels is to find out the extent of stockpiling, make a concrete
analysis and seriously deal with it. If the products are needed by society
but are stockpiled due to problems in the circulation of commodities, efforts
should be made to actively strengthen marketing work and especially to open
up rural markets or, in some cases, international markets. If the products
are clearly not needed by society and are in the category of impractical
goods from the view of the whole, administrative and economic measures should
be applied. In such cases, administrative intervention should be firmly made
without any fear of giving offense. If certain products are indeed over-
produced, their production should be restricted. If certain products are
temporarily in short supply, there is no need for us to rush headlong into
producing them all at the same time. In stressing economic benefits, we
should not only keep sight of the immediate benefits and the benefits to the
part, but more important, we should not lose sight of the long-term benefits
and the benefits to the whole. To make products meet society's needs--in
addition to readjusting plans in a timely manner in light of market changes
and intervening administratively and applying economic measures--it is neces-
sary to strengthen market forecasting and improve planning work. At the same
time, it is necessary to formulate and publish the economic and technical
criteria for products and the criteria for factory construction as quickly
as possible and strictly enforce this criteria in order to stop blind fac-
tory construction and blind production.
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Bringing economic work to the path of raising economic results is the key to
achieving a fundamental improvement of the financial and economic situation.
We should spare no efforts to produce results in this regard. This is a new
task for the vast number of cadres and workers on the economic front. It is
also a new test for us all.
In the current industrial and communications work, the people's concern, as
reflected in their reports, is concentrated mainly on energy and transporta-
tion issues. I will make three points: First, the coal, railway and com-
munications ministries should make further efforts in carrying out the pro-
duction, allocation and shipment of coal. Coal production was not bad in
the first 2 months of this year and coal transportation was also good. But
the implementation of the allocation plan was rather poor. Earnest measures
should be taken to change this situation. Second, all localities should
arrange their production in light of the energy supply situation. They
should balance their industrial growth rates with the local energy supply;
otherwise their goals will fall through. There are at present some locali-
ties that set very high targets for themselves and then ask the state to
allocate more coal. This cannot be done. Third, energy supply cannot be
expected to increase at present. The primary way out is to economize. It
is necessary to save energy by every possible means. The energy shortage
will not be resolved if we do not work to economize.
II. On the Question of Adhering to the Principle of Giving Highest Priority
to the Planned Economy and Taking the Whole Country and the Overall Situation
Into Account
Comrade Chen Yun recently made a series of important instructions on
economic work. He once again stressed: Our country must adhere to the
principle of giving highest priority to the planned economy with market
force playing a subsidiary role. In national construction, the whole country
and the overall situation must be taken into account. The fundamental policy
that "first we must eat, second we must construct" must be implemented. He
also pointed out that the first priority task of the special economic zones
is to seriously sum up experier}ces. These instructions all concern the major
questions of principles and policies in economic construction and were put
forward in light of the questions existing in our present economic life.
They are of great immediate importance. They are in keeping with our
economic policy of the recent years that calls for opening up our country
externally and enlivening our economy internally.
Since the 3d Plenary Session of the 11th CCP Central Committee, under the
unified leadership of the state and the guidance of state planning, we have
enforced the policy of opening up our country externally and enlivening our
economy internally. Our orientation is correct and our achievements are the
main aspect. Without these reforms, we would not have the good situation we
have today. This we must first affirm. However, in implementing the policy
of opening up our country externally and enlivening the economy internally,
we must be sober-minded and adhere to the aforementioned several principles
put forward by Comrade Chen Yun, which are also the fundamental principles
and policies our party has upheld for years. They must not be forsaken or
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be weakened. At present, while keeping sight of our achievements in opening
up our country and enlivening our economy we must also be soberly aware that
our opening up and enlivening will inevitably bring a number of problems. In
this regard, we should have the courage to use the current favorable inter-
national and domestic conditions and continue to uphold the policy of opening
up our country externally and enlivening our economy internally in order to
promote our economic development. We must not waver over the established
correct policy. At the same time, we must adequately recognize the problems
brought about by this policy. We must not turn a blind eye to them or leave
them alone. Today in stressing the need for giving highest priority to the
planned economy and taking the whole country and the overall situation into
account, our purpose is precisely to keep us sober-minded so that we can
adopt measures to prevent the emergence of problems or resolve them if they
have already emerged; to correctly and soundly implement the policy of open-
ing up our country externally and enlivening our economy internally; to
strengthen the position of planned economy; and to create conditions for
further reforming our economic structure.
The purpose of our open-door policy is to introduce into our country foreign
advanced technology and administrative knowledge as well as capital, which
is useful to us in spurring our country's socialist construction. Because
of the open-door policy, certain bad influences from capitalist countries
will inevitably find their way into our country. Smuggling, peddling smug-
gled goods, speculation, swindling, corruption and accepting bribes have
become rampant in certain localities and units; the capitalist living style
and decadent ideology will corrode our party; certain weak-willed cadres
will succumb to "sugar-coated bullets"; and our party members' work style
and the people's habits may be contaminated. Our party, on several occa-
sions in the past, when it carried out important new policies and faced new
historical turning points, raised the issue that it was necessary to guard
against capitalist inroads. One example was during KMT-CCP cooperation
at the initial period of the war to resist Japanese aggression. The main'
problem needing to be resolved in those days was to combat factionalism and
closed-doorism and open a new situation for the united front. At the same
time, the party Central Committee explicitly pointed out that the CCP must
maintain its ideological, political and organizational independence, adhere
to the stand of acting independently and, keeping the initiative in our own
hands, guard against problems generating from within our party. We did a
very good job at that time. We took advantage of the favorable situation-
and, greatly expanding our strength, created a new situation. Instead of
being corroded, our party become stronger. The second example was after
victory in the liberation war.. After acquiring national political power, our
party members entered the cities from the rural areas and faced a dazzling
world of humanity with its myriad temptations. In those days, the party
Central Committee and Comrade Mao Zedong quickly reminded the. whole party
that it was necessary to guard against the attack of "sugar-coated bullets."
Later, movements against the three and five evils were carried out. In
those days, our party's political, ideological and organizational situation
was very sound and we withstood the test.
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Now we are taking advantage of the favorable international and domestic
situation and are carrying out the policy of opening our doors to foreign
countries and enlivening the economy at home, and we are facing another
rigorous test. This time our party is confronting a much greater and more
serious influence from decadent capitalist ideology at home and abroad,
particularly the influence of international capitalism, than on the previous
two occasions. Moreover, after a decade of turmoil, our party's fine tradi-
tions and work style have been impaired. Therefore, during this new his-
torical period, it is all the more necessary to quickly alert all party
members to the questions of capitalist inroads. By sounding this alarm
we hope we can help our party members come to their senses, heighten their
spirit and strengthen their will to withstand the test.
Today, smuggling, peddling smuggled goods, speculation, swindling, corrup-
tion, accepting bribes and other crimes in the economic sphere are much more
serious than during the movements to oppose the three and five evils in 1952.
The inroads of such crimes on our party organizations and cadres' contingents
and their pernicious influence on the entire society are quite serious. This
situation, if not struggled against immediately with determination, will
develop from bad to worse in certain localities and will be unstoppable in
2 or 3 years. This is a prominent expression of the inroads of capitalist
ideology under the new historical conditions--conditions of externally carry-
ing out an open-door policy and internally enlivening the economy--and our
struggle against all sorts of crimes in the economic sphere, is an important
part in our allout struggle against capitalist inroads. This struggle is
inevitable and is a protracted one. Just as Comrade Hu Yaobang pointed out:
This is an extremely vital issue, which has an important bearing on our
party's survival and on our country's prosperity or decline.
We must be fully aware of the seriousness, harmful effects and danger of the
various crimes in the economic sphere and raise our consciousness of waging
this struggle properly. If we fail to resolutely and powerfully strike at
such crimes as smuggling, peddling smuggled goods, speculation, swindling,
corruption and accepting bribes, not only will our building of a material
civilization, be seriously undermined, the building of a spiritual civiliza-
tion will simply fail. Now the activities of rebuffing economic crimes are
going on simultaneously with the "courtesy month" activities and the masses
have acclaimed these activities and said our country is hopeful. All units
on the economic front must resolutely carry out this struggle through to the
end: By no means should they act perfunctorily or superficially. Of course,
when we carry out this struggle we will not resort to the method of handling
legal cases and exert special efforts to deal with major cases. This
struggle will be carried out along with the overall reorganization of our
enterprises and the general examination of financial affairs. We must,
through reorganization and examination, find the clues, strengthen investi-
gation, and track down and seriously handle the problems so as to strike at
the criminals and educate our cadres. At the same time, we must establish
and improve various rules and regulations and plug loopholes so that the
criminals will not be able to avail themselves of them. Doing this will
spur our efforts to improve management, economic accounting and economic
results.
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Another conspicuous problem is the recent growth of the trend toward depart-
mentalism, decentralism and liberalism in the economic sphere. This is
another major problem which has cropped up under the new historical condi-
tions.. We have domestically implemented the policy of activating our
economy, delegated some powers to the local authorities and enlarged the
enterprises' decisionmaking powers for the purposes of whipping up the
enthusiasm of the local authorities, the various departments and enterprises
and the masses, turning human talents and land and other material resources
to good account and vigorously developing China's national economy. Efforts
to expand decisionmaking powers and activate the economy are also apt to
foster the trend toward departmentalism, decentralism and liberalism, to
weaken and depart from the state's unified plan, to interfere with and break
up the unified market of socialism and to affect our efforts to take the
whole country and the overall situation into consideration. Instead of
surveying and dealing with problems on the basis of the overall interests of
the state, some localities and units take into account the local as well as
their own interests. In dealing with the higher level, they disobey the
unified plans of the state and seek private gain at public expense. In deal-
ing with the units and other localities concerned, they shift their troubles
onto others and harm others to benefit themselves. In conducting foreign
trade, they refuse to implement the policy of unifying as one and joining
efforts to deal with foreign countries, and jostle against each other. As a
result, the foreign countries reap the benefits. There are presently still
many signs of people carrying out construction and production blindly in
disregard of the needs in society as well as the overall and long-term
interests of the state. In some localities, the tasks for state monopoly and
compulsory purchase have been shirked. Economic blockade between one dis-
trict and another is fairly serious. There are many examples in this respect.
Ours is a unified socialist nation. We must have a unified plan and unified
domestic market. We must not allow one market for one province. If this
practice is permitted, its political and economic consequences to our nation
will be unimaginable. Also, for example, in the field of foreign trade,
there is evidence of various districts, departments and enterprises vying
with each other in cutting prices and counteracting each other's efforts.
This has caused considerable damage already. The result is that by counter-
acting each other's efforts, the local authorities and enterprises reap some
small benefits while the state suffers a great deal.
In order to strengthen centralization and unification in economic work, we
must adhere to the overall plan on major issues while allowing freedom on
minor issues. We must advocate centralism on major issues while allowing
decentralism on minor issues. We must also correctly handle the relations
between the practice of taking the whole country and the overall situation
into account and the practice of whipping up local enthusiasm. The state
must interfere with these erroneous practices and issue orders to eliminate
them. It must not allow each one to pursue his own course.
1. In foreign trade, we must adhere to the policy of unifying as one and
joining our efforts in dealing with foreign countries. After expanding the
powers of the local authorities and various departments in conducting
foreign trade, we must resolutely adopt effective measures to eliminate the
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erroneous practice of vying with each other in dealing with foreign countries
and in cutting prices. In foreign trade, it is necessary to appropriately
expand the powers of the local authorities. However, at the same time, we
must thoroughly solve the problem of selling products of the same category
abroad in a unified manner. With a main port as a center, we must form a
joint administration in exporting products of the same category in order to
strengthen our coordination and management. After the powers in foreign
trade are expanded according to district, the nine coastal provinces and
municipalities in particular must exert still greater efforts in strengthen-
ing their unity in selling the products of the same category abroad, and
thoroughly prevent each of them from forming an individual system in foreign
trade so as to avoid disrupting their traditional and historical relations in
coordination. The departments concerned must formulate necessary measures to
strengthen coordination and unity with the support of central cities and main
ports.
2. The products to be transferred according to state plans, including farm
and sideline products, must be transferred strictly according to such plans.
No one is allowed to retain them for his own use or to utilize them as a
means of cooperation with others or to sell them at a negotiated price.
3. We must resolutely correct the practice of enforcing economic blockade
between one district and another. Except for those to be allotted or
delivered according to state plans, all products which have met the standards
set by the state and those products produced in accordance with state plans
are permitted to be marketed throughout the country. The enterprises are
authorized to select and purchase the products themselves. The party and
government organs in various localities must not interfere with the enter-
prises. If they do, the enterprises have the right to resist such inter-
ference.
It is necessary to care for old base areas, the regions inhabited by
minority people and remote areas. It is necessary to provide technology and
equipment to help these areas turn out products suited for local production
and achieve even greater economic development.
4. The commodity price and revenue system must be centralized and unified.
Without the approval of the State Council, no locality, department or unit
is allowed to change a tariff rate or reduce or increase taxes. Without the
approval of the State Council, the price of any product within the limits of
state commodity price control must not be increased or decreased.
Comrade Chen Yun said: The task of top priority in the special economic
zones at present is to summarize experience. I think the question of
earnestly summarizing experience not only prevails in the special economic
zones or in the two provinces of Guangdong and Fujian, but also in the whole
country. All these reforms aimed at activating the economy at home and
those within the foreign trade system must be reviewed and summarized to
help us remain sober-minded and thoroughly solve the problems which have
cropped up so that the reforms within the economic system will be healthily
and extensively developed. For example, we must advocate the expansion of'
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the enterprises' decisionmaking powers and the implementation of the
economic responsibility system. However, we are indeed faced with the
question of how to divide profits. We must carefully study how to take
into account the interests of the state, the collective and the individuals
simultaneously and to determine the share belonging to the state, to the
enterprises and to the individuals as well as the most appropriate form of
distribution. After the expansion of the enterprises' decisionmaking powers,
we must.. also strengthen the management and supervision over such enter-
prises accordingly. To let the local authorities adequately share some
powers is necessary. However, we must study how to avoid setting up
economic blockades between one locality and other, and keep from following
the trends of departmentalism and decentralism that may possibly prevail and
how to prevent such trends from affecting the necessary practice of central-
ism and unification in China's economic work and to keep them from influ-
encing the country as a whole. On the one hand, the foreign trade departments
must pay attention to bringing into full play the enthusiasm of the units at
all levels. On the other hand, they must also prevent themselves from com-
peting against and undermining each other in front of foreign businessmen.
In this respect, we must also earnestly sum up our experience. In short,
the open-door policy in foreign trade and the policy of enlivening the
economy domestically will not change, and the orientation for carrying.out
reforms remains firm. However, we must pay full attention to existing
problems and sum up our experience and lessons. We are doing this pre-
cisely because we seek to do a still better job in enforcing reforms from
now on.
The tentative plan for reform is:
1. The economic policies that have been put into practice generally will
not be changed this year in order to maintain their stability and continuity.
As far as the policy on economic results is concerned, the practice and
level prescribed by the government last year should be generally maintained
in terms of economic relationships between the state and the enterprise, and
between the state and the enterprise on the one hand, and the individual on
the other. However, extreme irrationalities in some individual units
should be appropriately readjusted.
2. This year we should also consider what is to be done next year. By
summarizing our experiences, we should put forward our views on how to
complement, perfect or readjust the implemented policies and measures for
next year. There appear to be three situations in this regard, one being
that in which policies and measures which are effective and correct in
orientation should be upheld. Another situation is that in which some
policies and measures are correct in orientation but have side effects.
These policies and measures should be continuously carried out if such
effects can be eliminated by strengthening management. In this case, it is
necessary to strengthen management in order to consolidate and improve the
policies and measures. Some policies and measures are basically correct in
orientation, but their side effects cannot be eliminated for a fairly long
time because management cannot keep up with the situation. In this case, an
appropriate readjustment should be made. The third situation is one in which
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improper policies and measures should be corrected next year. No matter
what reform is to be carried out, the general guideline is to combine the
strengthening of centralization and unification with the activation of the
economy and to bring into full play the initiative of localities, depart-
ments, enterprises and people under the guidance of state planning and the
principle of taking the whole country into account.
3. It is necessary to work out as soon as possible an overall plan for
reforming the economic system so that we shall have a long-term plan for
reform.
III. On the Question of All-Round Consolidation and Readjustment of
Enterprises
Efforts must be made to consolidate enterprises in order to achieve better
economic results. Otherwise, there would be no foundation for all other
work. The party Central Committee and the State Council have clearly
defined the purpose and requirements of enterprise consolidation and have
laid down explicit principles and policies in this regard. Now I will
particularly discuss the following several points:
1. The first group of enterprises selected for consolidation this year
should be big- and medium-sized key enterprises with more problems and a
great potential and which urgently need to be consolidated. Many in this
group should not be good enterprises; enterprises with more problems should
be consolidated first. When these enterprises are consolidated well, their
results will be raised quickly. Some enterprises that have a strong leading
body and have done basic work well may carry out their consolidation by
themselves or may be consolidated later. In this spirit, the lists of
enterprises selected for consolidation in various localities should be
adjusted.
2. Special attention should be paid to staffing enterprise leading bodies
and reforming the leadership system. Judging from the streamlining of the
State Council, the readjustment and strengthening of enterprise leading
bodies can be carried out at a faster pace and they can become compact and
efficient leading bodies. When the central administrative structure is
streamlined, it will give a tremendous stimulus to enterprises in this
regard. Enterprises have many qualified cadres and technicians in their
thirties or forties who are well versed in their fields of work and who have
both ability and political integrity. A number of them should be selected
and promoted to positions in leading bodies so that great progress can be
made in having leading bodies consist of revolutionary, well-educated,
professionally competent and young cadres. In this way, it will be possible
to bring about a noticeable change in this regard. To achieve this purpose,
there should be an age limit in selecting and appointing managers and
assistant managers of enterprises and directors and deputy directors of
factories during the consolidation. Except for such exceptionally big
enterprises as the Anshan Iron and Steel Company and such national corpora-
tions as the China Shipping Corporation, it is necessary to select as far as
possible personnel below age 50 and no older than 55 for managers, assistant
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managers, factory directors and deputy directors. Party committee secre-
taries and responsible persons of workers congresses may be a little older
but not too old. Some comrades in enterprises who have not reached the
retirement age and are still physically fit may go to the second line to
serve as staff officers or advisers to do counseling work. Some comrades
have suggested that personnel with an educational level equivalent to that
of a college graduate and with practical experiences be selected for
directors of big key enterprises. This is a good suggestion. If it is
difficult for some enterprises to select personnel with the educational level
equal to that of a college graduate for their directors, they should at least
select persons who have the educational level of a polytechnical school
graduate or those who have become qualified through self-study to be their
directors. Only by properly staffing enterprise leading bodies during the
consolidation will it be possible to bring about a big change in the outlook
of the enterprises.
3. It is imperative to staff various units according to their fixed number
of personnel and to train workers and staff members in rotation. After
streamlining the administrative structure, a large number of cadres of
central organs should be organized for study and training in rotation. This
is a matter of strategic significance. During the enterprise consolidation,
coupled with the institution of the economic responsibility system, it is
necessary to be determined to get the surplus workers and staff members out
for study and to persevere in doing so. Then, there will be a change in the
educational level of all workers and staff members after a few years. If the
surplus personnel should be allowed to remain in workshops and sections and
on shifts, many malpractices will occur. This situation must be corrected.
People in all localities should work hard in order to gain experiences in
this regard.
4. We must strengthen leadership in a conscientious way. Party committees
and governments at all levels must place the overall reorganizations of
enterprises on their agenda and leading comrades themselves should take
charge of this task. Economic commissions at all levels as well as all
industrial and communications ministries, departments and bureaus must
carry out this task in a practical way, and those teams assigned to work
at selected units must carry out their assignments in earnest. The central
authorities have decided that the organizational reform will not be
initiated in provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions this year so
that energies can be concentrated on enterprise reorganization and other
tasks. All ministries under the State Council must assign someone to be
especially in charge of this task and changes in the organs should not
interfere with this task. All ministries concerned are requested to
immediately hold meetings to study this task, work out plans and send out
teams to work at selected units. The State Economic Commission is to be
responsible for inspecting and supervising this task. We must carry out the
task of reorganization in a down-to-earth manner for 2 or 3 years, promote
all fundamental work at enterprises to meet the demands set by the central
authorities, and greatly enhance their economic results so that there will
emerge an entirely new look at the enterprises.
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In connection with the enterprise reorganization, there is another problem,
namely, readjustment of enterprises. Those industrial enterprises that turn
out products not meeting social demands, that consume too much energy or that
have long operated at a loss should be shut down, and have their operations
suspended; they should be amalgamated or switched to the manufacture of other
products and the practice of blindly setting up new industrial enterprises
should be stopped. This is a positive measure taken to enhance the overall
economic results of the society and to make the lineup of enterprises as
well as the geographical distribution of industries become rational. Taking
into consideration that enterprise reorganization has to be carried out as a
major task, that cases of violations in economic fields have to be handled
and that the reform of organs has to be promoted this year, we should be
aware that a lot of work has to be done this year. In this connection,
enterprise readjustment can be carried out only within a certain limit in
1982. Among those enterprises that have to be closed down or have their
operations suspended first are metallurgical plants and chemical plants con-
suming much energy, machine-building plants and electronics plants turning
out products of very poor quality, oil refineries achieving very poor
economic results and some industrial enterprises run by communes or produc-
tion brigades that contend with advanced enterprises for the supply of raw
materials, fuel and power. Efforts should also be made to arrange their
problems in order of importance and urgency, and to work out plans for enter-
prise readjustment as well as practical measures to deal with those enter-
prises that have to be closed down or have their operations suspended so as
to be well prepared for promoting this task in a planned way next year.
At the same time, we must also pay attention to the promotion of major tech-
nological reforms at enterprises in a planned way. During the current period
of economic readjustment, many machine-building plants are seriously in need
of tasks to achieve while over 20 million dun of rolled steel is stocked in
warehouses and the contingent of capital construction teams does not have
much work to do while wages have to be paid and management expenditures
have to be spent. On the other hand, plant facilities have become out of
date and some of them have to be replaced with new ones. Can't we think of
some way to "make a start" somewhere and activate work in various fields??
We must consider the possibility of banks issuing loans to machine-building
plants in the form of credit loans to sellers, of alloting rolled steel to
these plants for the manufacture of new highly efficient equipment and of
selling the equipment to those enterprises that need it to replace old
equipment that is low in efficiency but high in energy consumption. It will
not cost too much to carry out this task, for in promoting technological
reforms, funds spent on equipment account for about 85 percent of the total
investment under general circumstances. Some civil engineering projects
have also to be completed. Since these projects will not need much funding,
preparations for such projects can be made by either local units or enter-
prises themselves. Once this measure is taken, overstocked rolled steel
will have an outlet, machine-building industry will be reactivated, the
amount of waste iron and steel that can be supplied for remelting in
furnaces will be increased, metallurgical industry will be given an impetus,
tax revenues for the state will be increased and a new outlook will be
brought about to the technology and equipment at various plants. This was
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tried out at the No 2 motor works with good results last year. We must make
a start'in technological reform and renewal of facilities this year. In
promoting the technological reform centering on energy conservation, we must,
first of all, reform technology in turning out several major products,
including boilers, motor vehicles, transformers, water pumps and fanning
machines [feng ji 7364 26231 as well as a number of basic parts for machines.
We must do a good job in promoting technological reforms at such large enter-
prises as the Anshan Iron and Steel Company and the Nanjing Chemical Indus-
trial Company, acquire some experience in this concern and then popularize
their experiences.
IV. On the Question of Finance
The readjustment work was carried out conscientiously in 1981 by imple-
menting the guidelines of the central work conference held in December 1980.
As a result, the financial situation in 1981 was better than expected.
Revenues totaled 102.8 percent of the annual plans. There was a deficit of
less than 2.7 billion yuan, the figure mentioned in the report to the Fourth
Session of the Fifth National People's Congress. However, we are still con-
fronted with considerably great difficulties in finance. As stated in the
1982 state budgets, we anticipate the expenditures to exceed revenues by
3 billion yuan this year. Therefore, while noting the excellent situation
we must also anticipate latent dangers in financial work this year. If we
fail to achieve a balance between financial revenues and expenditures in the
main, the deficit will increase and it will lead to issuance of more cur-
rency. This will affect not only the basic stability of commodity prices at
markets but also the situation of stability and unity.
The general guideline for this year is to consolidate and stabilize the
economic achievements and march forward steadily on this basis. Whatever
happens, we cannot lower our guard after having initially stabilized the
economy and thus aggravate the latent danger again. To this end, the
Central Committee and the State Council have asked for efforts to further
implement the policy of readjustment, restructuring, reorganization and
upgrading and to continuously maintain a basic balance of revenues and
expenditures and of credit receipts and payments together with a basic
stability of commodity prices. This is not only an economic question but
also a political one.
Fundamentally speaking, to resolve a financial question, it is necessary to
develop production in earnest, improve economic results and do a good job in
increasing revenues and cutting expenditures. Besides continuously and
energetically developing the production of consumer goods as planned, chang-
ing the service orientation of heavy industry and conscientiously
reorganizing enterprises, efforts should be. made to grasp the following
well:
1. The purchase price of agricultural and sideline products should be
stabilized. The financial burden has become very heavy as more money is
put into circulation and many different kinds of subsidies are offered. In
1981 the state gave subsidies of 32 billion yuan for more than 30 kinds of
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commodities, of which over 80 percent had something to do with the prices
of agricultural and sideline products. Although agricultural and sideline
product prices have increased very little in the past 2 years, the propor-
tion of increased and negotiated prices is growing bigger and bigger and the
actual purchase price for agricultural and sideline products is still rising
steadily. Generally speaking, to solve this question we must have a stable
policy and readjust measures that exceed the limit of policy and those that
are drastically irrational. We must refer to the method used by Zhejiang
and other places of fixing the basic figures for planned purchase and .
apportioned purchase of agricultural and sideline products by the state;
places that had abandoned this method should restore it. By now, 3 years
have passed for some new producing areas; next year they should think about
fixing a rational purchasing task or the purchase proportion. The increased
and negotiated prices for purchase exceeding the planned quota should also
be readjusted and controlled.
2. The granting of bonuses should be controlled. In general they should be
stabilized at last year's level within the scope of provinces, municipalities
and autonomous regions this year with emphasis on doing away with egali-
tarianism in bonus-granting and on distribution according to work so as to
make the bonuses work effectively. Indiscriminate granting of bonuses
should be firmly corrected.
3. Efforts should be made to tighten financial discipline, intensify super-
vision and inspection and plug loopholes. At present, many enterprises have
indiscriminately assigned production cost, evaded tax and rationed profits-
which ought to be delivered to the state. All this has reached a fairly
serious degree. We must pay attention to this and solve it. The financial
inspection carried out early this year which achieved good results should
be continued. Problems once discovered should be dealt with expeditiously;
we should not turn big problems into small ones and small problems into no
problem at all.
4. Investment in capital construction must be controlled. While there is
no possible major breakthrough in capital construction, an expenditure item
under plan, the amount of funds raised on one's own, the funds the enter-
prises themselves have and the fixed capital investments made with bank
loans have grown into a considerably large sum. There are many problems in
this also. Various provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions should
check on them. For those projects that should go on, we should study how
to put the funds to good use. Another problem is that some places have set
up their own investment trust companies taking away bank deposits to do con-
struction. To summarize, the amount of money available is limited and
establishing an investment trust company here would mean reducing bank
deposits there. This in fact amounts to diverting a part of the credit
originally being used as current capital to capital construction, thus
extending the capital construction line and hampering the improvement of
economic results. I now reiterate that with the exception of those invest-
ment trust companies approved by the State Council or designated departments
concerned, all other investment trust companies should'be turned over to the
banks. The job of raising and using funds should be handled exclusively by
the banks and should not be done independently without them.
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In short, our entire economic situation has come out of the "bottom of the
pot," but the latent danger has not yet been basically eliminated. We rather
assess the problem more seriously; we should never lower our guard or become
unrealistically optimistic.
V. On the Question of Intensifying Ideopolitical Work
Under the new situation, ideopolitical work should not be weakened but
intensified. Over the years, our political organs have been busy launching
mass movements but they still lack an integrated set of experiences in doing
ideopolitical work well in the economic sphere. We should make an effort to
study and summarize experience in this area. Ideopolitical work should be
based on the demands of the four modernizations and integrated with economic
work and with the state of the mind of workers and staff in order to have a
definite object in view to truly solve problems. In discussing how to
intensify ideopolitical work, this conference has introduced the Daqing
oilfield's experience of strengthening the building of contingents of work-
ers and staff and the experience of the Tianjin caustic soda plant in carry-
ing out education on the love of the party, the motherland.and socialism
through studying history and Chinese modern history. All this is more vivid,
more realistic and convincing. We must, through meticulous and careful
ideopolitical work, make the fundamental guiding principles of taking equal
consideration of the interests of the state, the collectives and individuals
and.of "first, the people must have sufficient food; second, socialist con-
struction must be carried out," take root in the minds of workers and staff
and in work implementation as well.
Since the 3d Plenary Session of the 11th CCP Central Committee, the party
and government have made maximum efforts in improving the people's liveli-
hood in the rural areas and cities and the great majority of the masses are
satisfied. The state of mind of the people in the cities at present is
stable and upward looking on the whole. It should also be noted that a
small number of people in the cities are still not too satisfied and are
grumbling. Among them there are also elements with ulterior motives who
desire to stir up trouble. It seems that there is a necessity for choosing
a suitable time this year to universally carry out a vivid education on the
economic situation. We should, through this education, reckon an overall
account with the urban people and let the broad masses understand under what
conditions the state solved the question of the people's livelihood since
the downfall of the "gang of four," especially in the past several years
since the third plenary session. The account would cover the increase in
commodity prices, people's income, state subsidies to the urban people,
employment, in the total amount of wages and bonuses, in housing for work-
ers and staff, in the sale of durable consumer goods, and in urban savings
deposits. All accounts should be brought into the open. The country has
an account book. In the 3 years from 1979 to 1981, jobs were found for
26 million jobless young people who returned to the cities and towns;
housing covering 220 million square meters in floorspace was newly completed
for workers, staff and the people in the cities. The state increased sub-
sidies of the selling price of agricultural and sideline products annually
to more than 20 billion yuan. The total amount of wages for workers and
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staff in 1981 was 25.1 billion yuan greater than in 1978 or an increase of
44 percent; the average annual wages of workers and staff increased from
614 yuan in 1978 to 772 yuan in 1981 or an increase of 25.7 percent and so
forth. Every city, every enterprise and every unit has such an account book
and we should speak up with facts and figures. We must also make clear the
existing problems in the spirit of seeking truth from facts. For example,
for some party and government cadres, personnel engaged in scientific
research, teachers and workers and staff of collective enterprises, their
actual income has not been raised much and has even dropped. We should let
the masses voice their opinion openly so as to help us carry out education
about this situation and improve our work. Judging from results of educa-
tion conducted in Shanghai, Liaoning and Xuzhou, in so doing, most of the
people have come to. know the truth and eliminate misunderstanding; they have
realized that the party and the state have indeed made utmost efforts in the
interests of the.people. By reckoning accounts, workers and staff of the
Shanghai No 2 weaving plant who used to grumble about their livelihood prob-
lems have become even-tempered and good-humored and vigorous in work. A
party branch secretary of the Ningbo municipal clothing embroidery factory
made some most profound and objective remarks. She said: According to the
workers, over the past several years, they have found: 1) they have more
money in their pockets; 2) commodity prices have also risen; 3) they still
have more money in their pocket after carefully figuring out income and
expenditures; 4) the young people have higher demands. The masses of workers
are very reasonable. So long as we earnestly carry out education on the
economic situation, a healthy atmosphere will prevail more promisingly and
there will be no room for rumors and slanders.
We should, through education on the economic situation, further lead the
people to fully understand our national conditions and to foster the idea of
building our country through thrift and hard work and of arduous struggle.
Ours is a developing socialist country with a huge population, a weak founda-
tion and a very burdensome construction task in all fields. Livelihood
improvement can only be materialized gradually with the development of pro-
duction. It is therefore wrong and unachievable to put forth impractical
and excessive demands. As to livelihood problems, we should not simply
compare with the developed capitalist countries, nor should we compare with
those oil-rich countries or certain countries and regions which have become
prosperous by relying on processing. We have to go through a protracted
hard struggle in order to build our great motherland into a more prosperous
and strong country and to make all our people "comparatively well-off" for a
more prosperous life later. This requires us to earnestly implement the
principle of "first, the people must have sufficient food; second, socialist
construction must be carried out." The people's livelihood needs to be
improved gradually, but there is also a problem of doing things according to
one's own capability. We still have to allocate some funds, goods and mate-
rials for construction and for continuously enlarging reproduction in order
to advance toward the four modernizations. This is where the fundamental
interests of the people of the whole country lie. A prosperous life will
never become a reality if we only strive for enjoyment of life and divide up
and eat up everything instead of carrying out construction. We must, through
education, make the people correctly understand and handle well the relations
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between construction and livelihood and between accumulation and consumption
and integrate the immediate with long-term interests.
We are deeply convinced that by striking at lawbreaking and criminal activ-
ities in the economic sphere and promoting the building of spiritual civili-
zation together with education on the economic situation this year, the
people's spirit will be greatly enhanced and the social mood will take a
turn for the better.
CSO: 4004/30
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BE A CLEAR-HEADED, STAUNCH AND PROMISING MARXIST
Beijing RED FLAG in Chinese No 7, 1 Apr 82 pp 11-14
[Article by Editorial Department]
[Text] We are going through a historical stage of great changes and develop-
ment, from chaos to order and from poverty to abundance. The task of the
party during this stage is to lead our 1 billion people to gradually build up
the country into a modernized, highly democratic and highly civilized social-
ist power. Faced with this new situation and new task, party members and
cadres, especially high- and middle-level leading cadres, must strive to
become clear-headed, staunch and promising Marxists.
In order to be staunch and promising, one must first of all be clear-headed.
As a Marxist, in order to be clear-headed, the most fundamental question is
to have a farsighted and comprehensive view and accurate analysis and assess-
ment of the present situation.
In the more than 5 years since the smashing of the "gang of four," espe-
cially since the 3d Plenary Session of the 11th CCP Central Committee, our
party has reestablished the Marxist ideological, political and organizational
line; formulated a series of principles and policies for socialist moderniza-
tion that are suited to our country's national conditions; adopted many
effective measures to improve the party's work style, enforce party dis-
cipline and restore the party's fine traditions; completed the task of
bringing order out of chaos in guiding ideology; and made tremendous achieve-
ments in practical work. Our party and country have thus passed through the
crisis caused by the decade of disorder of the "Great Cultural Revolution"
and embarked again on the road to prosperity. This is the mainstream of the
present situation and is a basic fact that no one can write off. If we take
a wavering attitude or have doubts in this assessment of the present situa-
tion or if we take the nonessentials of the present situation for the essen-
tials, we will commit grave mistakes. Does this mean, however, that other
than war, there are no major dangers to our party, our country and our
socialist cause and that we can sit back and relax? Of course not. Dangers
exist even in time of peace.
Lawbreaking criminal activities in the economic field are now much more
widespread than they were during the movements against the "three antis and
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the five antis" 30 years ago. Corrupted by capitalist ideas, some party
members and cadres and even party organizations have degenerated. Of course,
this phenomenon is only relatively more outstanding in a small number of
localities and among a small number of cadres. It is only a countercurrent
in the constant advancement of our party and country. If the whole party
unifies ..ts understanding and action and is united in waging an unremitting
struggle, this countercurrent will certainly be overcome. However, if the
whole party does not pay sufficient attention to this countercurrent and
does not wage a resolute struggle against it, this countercurrent will
undoubtedly exert a serious corrosive influence on the ranks of our party,
undermine our social values and destroy the cause of socialist moderniza-
tion. This clearly shows that other than war, there are dangers that will
cause the decline of our party and country. We must have a clear-headed
understanding of this important question which concerns the future and
destiny of the party and country.
What do these dangers. stem from? It goes without saying that we must main-
tain vigilance against the aggression and subversion of imperialists and
social imperialists. Neither must we lower our guard against the activities
of the remnants of the counterrevolutionary cliques headed by Lin Biao and
Jiang Qing. But we should be even more aware that fortresses are most vul-
nerable to attacks from within. Our party is the vanguard of the working
class. As long as the body of our party is healthy, maintains the purity of
communism and is always linked with the people, no enemy forces will be able
to defeat it. In this sense, the main danger lies within the party itself
and in the possible moral degeneration of wavering members.
As to the party itself, the key is held by its high- and middle-level lead-
ers, its principal leading cadres. In the article "The Role of the Chinese
Communist Party in the National War" written in 1938, Comrade Mao Zedong
said, "So far as shouldering the main responsibility of leadership is con-
cerned, our party's fighting capacity will be much greater and our task of
defeating Japanese imperialism will be more quickly accomplished if there
are 100 or 200 comrades with a grasp of Marxism-Leninism which is systematic
and not fragmentary, genuine and not hollow." This passage correctly and
clearly states the position and role of leading cadres with a good grasp of
Marxism in the revolutionary cause. In leading a population of 1 billion
people toward socialist modernization, our party now needs 10,000 or 20,000
such Marxists instead of 100 or 200. If our leading cadres at high and
middle levels are clear-headed Marxists, are staunch Marxists and are
promising Marxists, the party will be built better and its fighting capacity
will be greatly increased. Thus, our party will be able to correct all
mistakes and overcome the phenomenon of corruption.
At present, we are faced with a fierce struggle between the corrosive influ-
ence of capitalist ideas and the resistance of socialist ideas to this
influence. Viewed from what has already been exposed, a relatively serious
tendency of bourgeois liberalization has emerged in many areas of China's
social life. Decadent capitalist ideas and ways of life have exerted a
rather serious corrosive influence on the ranks of the Communist Party and
are rather seriously poisoning the general mood of society. Indeed, many
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party members and cadres have been roped in within a very short period. Some
old cadres who were not conquered by the enemy's force of arms or the sup-
pression of the Lin Biao and Jiang Qing counterrevolutionary cliques have
been conquered by the bourgeois "sugar-coated bullets" in the past few years
and have become captives of the bourgeoisie. That capitalist ideas have
intruded into the militant Communist Party is a fact that brooks no neglect.
Facts have clearly shown that bourgeois liberalization is not just a ques-
tion of the cultural and ideological fronts but is a common question facing
all fronts. On the economic front, phenomena such as smuggling, selling
contraband, offering and accepting bribes, corruption, theft, speculation,
swindling and appropriating large quantities of state property are not iso-
lated or accidental occurrences. They are outstanding expressions of
bourgeois liberalization under new historical conditions, that is, at a time
when an open-door policy and a policy to enliven the domestic economy are
being implemented. They are also an important manifestation of class
struggle under socialist conditions. These facts have proved that under the
new historical conditions, if we do not strengthen ideological and political
work, do not establish and perfect corresponding management systems, do not
adopt effective management measures and do not wage a struggle to resist the
corrosive influence of capitalist ideas, we will not be able to smoothly
carry out modernization. In the face of the serious corrosive influence of,
decadent capitalist ideas and ways of life, we must have the understanding
that the present struggle against the corrosive influence of capitalist ideas
and bourgeois liberalization, including the struggle to hit out at crimes in
the economic field, is a protracted struggle that concerns the success or
failure of China's socialist modernization and the prosperity or decline of
the Communist Party and the country. The whole party must attach great
importance to this struggle.
However, we must not forget historical experiences and lessons. Although
the question of corrosive influence of capitalist ideas and bourgeois
liberalization is rather outstanding at present, it is not after all the
principal contradiction in our country. The principal contradiction in
China is the contradiction between the people's growing material and cul-
tural needs and the backward social production. This contradiction must be
resolved by means of socialist modernization. The political line formulated
at the 3d Plenary Session of the 11th CCP Central Committee is precisely to
unite the people of all nationalities throughout the country to gradually
build our country into a modernized, highly democratic and highly civilized
socialist power. This is a Marxist line. It reflects the common desire and
demand of the people of all nationalities throughout the country and repre-
sents the greatest interests of the masses of people. We must resolutely
implement this line. The reason why we wage the struggle against the
corrosive influence of capitalist ideas and bourgeois liberalization is also
precisely to promote a fundamental change for the better of the party's work
style, the people's practices and social order, to eliminate all interfer-
ences and obstacles in implementing the party's political line and to ensure
smooth progress in our efforts to achieve socialist modernization. There-
fore, if we want to be staunch Marxists, we must first firmly adhere to the
line. We must not obscure the orientation of our advancement, must not
shift the focus of our work and must not repeat the mistake of "taking class
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struggle as the key link." For over 20 years after the socialist transforma-
tion of the private ownership of the means of production had basically been
completed, we did not shift the focus of our work to socialist construction.
We thus regarded class struggle as the principal contradiction and committed
the mistake of magnifying class struggle, causing the country and the people
to suffer a lot. We should not do such foolish things again. In his report
"The Present Situation and Tasks" given on 16 January 1980, Comrade Deng
Xiaoping said: "Starting from the new year of the first year of the 1980's,
we must 'not waste even one single day. We must concentrate all our atten-
tion on building the four modernizations." "Unless a large-scale war breaks
out, we must be determined to persist on doing this. Everything should center
round it and it should not be interfered in any way. Even if a large-scale
war breaks out, we must continue to do it or begin our efforts again after
the war is over. Our whole party and all the people must set this as the
high aim and lofty aspiration. We must grasp it firmly, be more 'stubborn'
and not be irresolute." We must always bear these words in mind.
Some people attribute the emergence of capitalist corruption and bourgeois
liberalization to the party's open-door policy and the policy to enliven the
domestic economy. This is totally wrong. We must make it explicit that .
such policies are firm and unshakable and introduced in accordance with the
needs of our socialist modernization and with the international situation.
It is of great strategic significance to implement such policies because our
country is a big country which has a vast population, a poor foundation to
start with and a relatively backward economy. In order to change this back-
ward situation, we must make breakthroughs and learn the skills to manage
the domestic economy and devglgp economic relations with foreign countries.
We must devise a path of socialist construction which suits actual Chinese
conditions and must never again take the old road which adopted a closed-
door policy toward foreign nations and rigid management of the domestic
economy. These correct policies of an open-door policy and policy to
enliven the domestic policy will still be enforced even after our economy
is developed. We should realize that there are numerous factors accounting
for notable criminal activities in the economic field in some areas. For
instance, there are still remnants of the ancient society and ideological
influences of the exploiting class in our country; the pernicious influence
of anarchism and extreme individualism which had been instigated by the Lin
Biao and Jiang Qing counterrevolutionary cliques during the 10 years of
disorder is far from being eliminated; while implementing the open-door
policy and the policy to enliven the domestic economy, we have not been able
'to keep pace with the ideological and political work and with some necessary
systems and measures of management, with the result that the influence of
decadent capitalist ideas and the bourgeois way of life has multiplied, and
so on. These are very important reasons. How can we attribute the rampancy
of illegal and criminal activities in the economic field to the implementa-
tion of the open-door policy and the policy to enliven the domestic economy?
Our party has drawn a clear demarcation line regarding these policies. The
criminal activities in the economic field have nothing to do with these
policies. In view of our party's principles, all these evil deeds have
always been considered as illegal and are impermissible under party dis-
cipline and state law. All practices under the pretexts of being "special
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and flexible" which distort such policies and which are divorced from the
socialist orientation, divorced from the communist stand and are contrary
to party spirit and the party's principles, can only sabotage such policies.
What we should do now is to sum up past experiences, carry forward the
achievements obtained, overcome shortcomings and correctly and healthily
implement the policies which have been formulated. We absolutely should not
change the policies. Regarding this question, we must not waver in the
least extent.
The revolutionary history of our. country has shown that both the question
of upholding the proletarian stand and maintaining the party's communist
purity and the question of taking precautions against and opposing class
capitulationism exist whenever we make contact with the bourgeoisie. Chen
Duxiu's class capitulationism was manifested during the period of the great
revolution. Wang Ming's class capitulationism was manifested in the early
years of the war of resistance against Japan. In the early years since the
founding of the country, it was perfectly correct and extremely necessary
for us to cooperate with the national bourgeoisie. It also proved to be a
complete success. However, some of our party members and cadres were hit by
the "sugar-coated bullets" of the bourgeoisie despite Comrade Mao Zedong's
warnings released on the eve of the liberation to the whole party against
the attack of the bourgeoisie's "sugar-coated bullets." We are in a poorer
situation at present compared to the situation then. Such circumstances are
unavoidable in the new historical era. We must not lose our confidence in
the party's policies because of the launching of the anticorruption struggle;
similarly, we must not neglect, or slacken our efforts or be afraid to whole-
heartedly launch the anticorruption struggle because we want to uphold and
implement the party's policies. All our party members and cadres, and par-
ticularly the high- and middle-level party cadres, must have a firm prole-
tarian stand, bear in mind the party's fundamental aim of wholeheartedly
serving the people, bear in mind the party's ultimate goal of realizing the
communist ideals, bear in mind the party members' vocation of maintaining
the party's communist purity, and must always guide our actions with the
communist ideological system during this struggle.
The present period we are in is a historical period of great significance,
and also one in which there is plenty of scope for our talents. We should
not be satisfied in being mediocre, decrepit and muddleheaded, but try our
best to become useful and promising people. At present, the most important
thing for us to do is to combine political steadfastness with scientific
foresight, proceed from the higher plane of strategic ideology, shore our-
selves us, be bold and resolute in our work, and try our best to create in
the next few years a really new situation in various fields of our construc-
tion, including the development of our economic relations with foreign coun-
tries. In order to fulfill these targets, we must uphold the four basic
principles, correctly carry out the line, guiding principles and policies of
the party, go deep into the reality of life, strengthen investigations and
studies, repeatedly study the new situations and solve new problems. We must
master two skills: the skill of managing construction at home and that of
developing our economic relations with foreign countries. We must carry out
our work in two ways: developing the material civilization and improving the
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spiritual civilization, while correctly understanding and handling the rela-
tionship between the two civilizations. We must carry out reform and
readjustment to eliminate the irrationality and shortcomings existing in the
production relations and in the superstructure, resolutely carry out the
streamlining of administrative organs and reform the cadre system with revo-
lutionary spirit. We must regard opposition to the bourgeois liberaliza-
tion tendency as an important part of party building and of consolidating
political power for a certain period in the future, and attach importance to
it. On,.the other hand, we must unswervingly carry on the struggle to seri-
ously crack down on illegal and criminal activities in the economic field.
We must fix our attention on and seriously and speedily handle those severely
illegal and criminal activities, such as smuggling and selling contraband,
bribery, corruption and theft, speculation and swindling, appropriating
state and collective properties, and so on. We must punish those cadres who
engage in serious crimes, especially those who are occupying important posts,
and should never hesitate in taking actions against them, and not appease or
shield them. With this struggle, we not only can resolutely stop unhealthy
tendencies in the economic field, but also give the vast number of party
members and cadres a profound Marxist education on party character, party
work style and party discipline.
If we recall our party's militant course over the last 60-odd years, we can
see that our proletarian revolutionaries of the old generation headed by
Comrade Mao Zedong and others never failed to put forth to the whole party
the task of strengthening studies whenever the revolution arrived at a turn-
ing point. Now, as the vast number of party members and cadres are to make
themselves clear-headed, staunch and promising Marxists, they have to
strengthen their studies in Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought. Some
articles written by Comrade Mao Zedong during the period of the anti-
Japanese war, such as "The Situation and Tasks in the Anti-Japanese War
After the Fall of Shanghai and Taiyuan," "Introducing the Communist,"
"Preface and Postscript to Rural Surveys," and so on are especially worth
being reviewed. Although all of them were aimed at the concrete circum-
stances of the time, and our situation today is quite different from the
historical conditions then, the basic standpoint, points of view and methods
embodied in these articles remain very educational to us. All of our party
members and party cadres, in particular leading cadres at middle and high
levels, have to study anew and solidly master Comrade Mao Zedong's theory and
tactics of the dual nature of the united front which promoted unification
along with struggle. Under all circumstances we must resolutely safeguard
our purity as communists, and we are not allowed to lower our ideological
understanding and political consciousness as communists. All communists
should never be corroded by the bourgeoisie. Under the new historical con-
ditions, we must creatively apply this magnificent thought to developing our
economic relations with foreign countries, to carrying out the policy of
enlivening the domestic economy and all fields of social life, so as to over-
come the tendency of bourgeois liberalization, to resolutely resist and
oppose the corrosion of capitalist ideas. Thus, we will be able to stand
invincibly and be unremitting in our advance toward winning new victories.
CSO: 4004/30
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READJUST THE AGRICULTURAL SECTOR, IMPROVE ECONOMIC RESULTS
Beijing RED FLAG in Chinese No 7, 1 Apr 82 pp 15-19
[Special commentary by Bai Rubing [4101 1172 0393]]
[Text] How to accelerate the development of agricultural production, improve
the commodity turnover rate and improve economic results is a problem of
strategic importance which should be solved in readjusting the agricultural
structure of Shandong Province. Here I would like to discuss some of our
methods and theories for readjusting agricultural structure.
I. Rationally Readjust the Overall Crop Pattern Under the Guidance of State
Planning
To readjust the agricultural structure, it is first necessary to satisfac-
torily handle the proportional relations between grain on the one hand and
cotton and edible oil on the other hand. Since liberation, Shandong
Province's agricultural production has developed considerably. Calculated
in terms of 1970 prices, the total agricultural.output value increased from
3.28 billion yuan in the early days after the founding of the PRC to 11.35
billion yuan in 1978, an increase of 2.5 times. However, owing to the
"leftist" influence, the agricultural structure has been irrational and the
economic results of agricultural production have been very poor over a long
period of time. In the 22 years between 1956 and 1978, the average per
capita income from distribution of the commune members throughout the
province increased by only 16.5 yuan, an average annual increase of 0.75
yuan, of which the average per capita income from distribution of one-fourth
of the basic accounting units was below 40 yuan. Particularly between 1959
and 1978, the four relatively poor prefectures of Heze, Liaocheng, Dezhou
and Huimin consumed 11.07 billion jin of state marketing grain, spent 628
million yuan of relief funds and owed the state 517 million yuan in loans.
Thus the problem of providing adequate food and clothing to commune members
has remained unsolved for long years.
In the past, one of the important reasons for the poor economic results of
our province's agriculture was that the ratio and distribution for grain and
industrial crops, such as cotton and peanuts, were irrational. The climate
and soil of Shandong Province are relatively suitable for the growth of
multifarious crops. Historically, it had a tradition of growing grain,
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cotton, peanuts, soybeans and flue-cured tobacco. While getting a good grip
on grain production, vigorously developing such industrial crops as cotton
and peanuts is not only the strong point of the province's agriculture but
also the needs of the state and the people's livelihood. However, owing to
the quite serious one-sidedness in the guiding ideology in our agricultural
production, in agriculture, exclusive stress would be put on grain at,the
expense of industrial crops. Of the 40 million mu of farmland of the four
prefectures in northwestern Shandong Province, 10 million mu of farmland is
saline-alkali soil. The per mu yield of grain on such soil is 200 or 300
jin, the low yield being no more than 100 jin. If it is sown with cotton
and things go well, every mu of such farmland will yield about 100 jin of
ginned cotton and the income from it is largely equal to 300 percent of that
from sowing grain crops. But, in the past, one-sided emphasis was put on
the practice of "taking grain as the key link," the minimum acreage under
cotton totaled only over 3.8 million mu, over 5.6 million mu less than the
1956 figure. In Jiaodong and central and southern Shandong Province there
are several tens of millions of mu of sandy land which is suitable for grow-
ing peanuts. Previously, an area of 9 million mu of land was sown with
peanuts. But later the minimum acreage under peanuts was reduced to over
3 million mu. As the result of the failure to bring the strong points into
play, this subjective practice ended up with the production avenues becoming
narrower and narrower.
Since the 3d Plenary Session of the 11th CCP Central Committee, we have
implemented a series of the CCP Central Committee's principles and policies
concerning agricultural matters. While enthusiastically introducing various
forms of the production responsibility system, in the light of the province's
actual conditions, we have readjusted overall crop pattern to ways suitable
to local conditions and have achieved remarkable successes. Over the past
3 years, the average annual increase in the total agricultural output value
of the province has been 7.3 percent; that in grain, 0.3 percent; that in
cotton, 63.3 percent; that in peanuts, 13.9 percent; the yearly increase in
the income from the diversified economy has been 22 percent; and that in the
income of the commune members from collective distribution, 19 yuan. Thus
the income in 1 year equals that of over 20 years. To develop industrial
crops, we have adopted the following measures: 1) We have earnestly carried
out the state's regulations concerning the readjustment of prices for the
agricultural and sideline products and aroused the enthusiasm of the peasants
for growing such industrial crops as cotton and peanuts. 2) In 1979, we
began practicing "linking the purchase and marketing of grain with that of
cotton," ensuring the grain ration for cotton growers, raising the standards
for selling chemical fertilizers and grain as rewards to the cotton growers
and encouraging the cotton-producing areas to grow more cotton. 3) In the
concentrated cotton-producing areas, the principle of "ensuring cotton with
grain and promoting grain with cotton" and that of "simultaneously grasping
grain and cotton, with the stress on cotton" has been practiced. 4) We have
summed up and spread, in real earnest, the typical experiences in effecting
the double good harvest of grain and cotton and that of grain and edible oil
and popularized such fine varieties as "Lumian No 1." 5) We have appro-
priately expanded the acreage under such industrial crops as cotton and
peanuts, turned a considerable amount of saline-alkali land which is
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unsuitable for growing grain crops into land sown with cotton and turned por-
tions of hilly areas into land sown with peanuts, and the greater part of
the newly reclaimed "three wastelands" (sandy land, farmland running to weeds
and alkaline land) have been sown with cotton and peanuts. Over the past 3
years, the acreage under such industrial crops as cotton and peanuts has been
expanded by more than 7 million mu. The strong point of the northwestern
areas of Shandong Province--cotton--and the strong points of the Liaodong
peninsula and the central and southern areas of the province--peanuts, flue-
cured tobacco and others have been brought into fuller play. The total out-
put of cotton in 1981 was 13.5 million dan, 10.41 million dan more than the
figure in 1978 or an increase of 337 percent and that of peanuts in 1981,
27.78 million dan, 9 million dan more than the 1978 figure or an increase of
47.9 percent. The ratio of the output value of industrial crops all over the
province to the total output value of the planting industry increased from
15.7 percent in 1978 to 27.6 percent in last year. The commodity turnover
rate of agricultural and sideline products has increased year after year.
The commodity turnover rate for grain between 1978 and 1981 increased from
13.6 percent to 14.5 percent; that for cotton, from 87.4 percent to 95 per-
cent; that for peanuts, from 57.3 percent to 60.2 percent; and that for flue-
cured tobacco, from 95.7 percent to 97 percent. At present, the needs of the
province for cotton, edible oil and tobacco have been ensured and, moreover;
cotton, edible oil and tobacco can still be exported to earn funds to support
state construction. In the fiscal year 1980, a net amount of 180 million jin
of edible oil and of 960,000 dan of flue-cured tobacco was exported, an
increase of 80 percent and 27 percent over that in 1978 respectively; and
1.36 million dan of cotton was.imported from other provinces in fiscal year
1979, but in fiscal year 1980, 4.95 million dan of cotton was exported and in
fiscal year 1981, 7.7 million dan was expected to be exported.
After the expansion of acreage under cotton. and oil-bearing crops and the
reduction in acreage under grain crops, will grain output fall? This is a
question which quite a few comrades worry about. The results of practice
show that grain output has increased rather than dropped. Grain, cotton and
edible oil have promoted one another. Along with the development of indus-
trial crops, the income of collective, communes and individual commune
members has increased by a big margin, thus providing more funds for expand-
ing reproduction and also large amounts for purchasing cottonseed-based
fertilizer, peanuts and soybeans. This has played an important role in
restoring and developing soil fertility and ensuring an increase in grain
production. In the past, the four prefectures in northwestern Shandong
Province concentrated on grain alone and, as. a result, cotton production
was not promoted and grain output was both.low and unstable. Over the past
few years, acreage under cotton has been expanded in line with specific
local conditions and, as a result, cotton output has doubled and redoubled
and grain output has also increased satisfactorily. Despite a reduction of
nearly 2 million mu of farmland under grain in 1981, grain output registered
an increase of 1.65 billion jin and cotton output registered an increase of
more than 2.7 million dan over those in 1980. The masses say: "Particular
attention has been paid to both gold (grain) and silver (cotton) and life
has-thus become increasingly more gratifying."
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However, the acreage under industrial crops must not. be expanded blindly.
After the prices for agricultural and sideline products were raised, the
peasants vied with one another in growing more industrial crops such as
cotton and peanuts. Some concentrated grain-producing areas also reduced
the farmland under grain crops and expanded the farmland for growing cotton,
peanuts and tobacco and thus emerged the contradiction that industrial crops
and grain are vying with each other in competing for farmland. In order to
solve this problem, we have paid attention to the following things:
1) Priority must be given to planned economy in agricultural production.
Full play must be given to the strong points of every province and locality
on the one hand, and agricultural production must subject itself to state
plans and the needs of the people's livelihood on the other. We must not
indiscriminately grow whatever crops promise more income. Seen from the
conditions of the province, the present acreage under industrial crops
constitutes 25.63 percent of the total area of cultivated land. The propor-
tions of the acreage under grain, cotton and oil-bearing crops are already
largely rational. The acreage under industrial crops must not, in general,
be expanded any more on a large scale. Shandong Province has a population
of more than 73 million, and the area of farmland sown to grain crops must
be kept at a level of over 70 million mu, averaging 1 mu of farmland sown
to grain crops per capita. Before there is a breakthrough in agricultural
science and technology, without maintaining so much farmland for growing
grain crops, it will be difficult to be self-sufficient in grain. 2) Assum-
ing full responsibility for grain purchase, marketing and allocation under
a contract has been practiced. In order to ensure the decisionmaking power
of the units at lower levels in planting and to enable them to uphold state
planning and guidance, we have clearly pointed out that, under the premise
of being self-sufficient in grain, the concentrated cotton-producing areas
are allowed to go all out to develop cotton production; under the condition
of ensuring the fulfillment of grain purchase tasks and ensuring the grain
ration of the commune members, the concentrated grain-producing areas are
allowed to appropriately develop industrial crops. Assuming full responsi-
bility for grain purchase, marketing and allocation under contracts between
the province and prefectures, between the prefectures and counties, and
between the counties and communes and their subdivisions has been widely
practiced. The contracts will not be changed once they are fixed.- 3) It is
necessary to reform the cropping system, make farming scientific and inten-
sive, and constantly increase the yield of each unit area. Special stress
should be put on doing a good job in intercropping and interplanting grain
and cotton and grain and oil-bearing crops and improving the multicrop
index. Last year, Wenshang County intercropped and interplanted wheat and
cotton on 70,000 mu of farmland, resulting in an average per mu yield of
310 jin of wheat and 130 jin of ginned cotton. Calculated in terms of the
acreage under practical cultivation, the per mu yield of wheat was equal to
1,033 jin, an increase of 470 jin compared with the output resulting from
the method of single-cropping wheat; the per mu yield of ginned cotton was
equal to 185 jin, 57 jin more than the output resulting from the method of
single-cropping cotton. The potential for intercropping and interplanting
grain, cotton and oil-bearing crops is enormous. In the future attention
must be paid to promoting the intercropping and interplanting grain, cotton
and oil-bearing crops.
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II. Gradually Shift the Focus of Readjustment to the Overall Development of
Agriculture, Forestry, Animal Husbandry, Sideline Occupations and Fishery
Grain, cotton and edible oil constitute an important part of agriculture
but are far from the whole of agriculture. Only when agriculture, forestry,
animal husbandry, sideline occupations and fishery are developed in an over-
all manner, can agricultural production be put on a foundation of ecological
balance, and a benign cycle ensured and reliable conditions created for
steady increases in grain, cotton. and edible oil production. For a long
period of time, we have not had a profound understanding of the dialectical
relationships among agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, sideline occu-
pations and fishery, and more often than not regarded agriculture as the
"principal occupation" and forestry, animal husbandry and fishery as "side-
line occupations." This one-sided argument has bound us hand and foot and
obstructed the development of forestry,, animal husbandry and fishery.
Practice has given us an increasingly clear understanding of the fact that
forestry and animal husbandry occupy an extremely important position and
play a unique role in ensuring a benign cycle in agriculture. Afforestation
can conserve headwaters as well as water and soil, prevent wind and fix sand,
and regulate climate. Rainfall in areas covered with forest in the province
is 15 to 20 percent more than that in areas without forest, and water reten-
tion in the former is 20 to 30 percent more than in the latter. After a .
forest net was established in 95 percent of the farmland of Yanzhou County,
wind speed within the forest net was reduced on the average by 38 percent,
air humidity increased by 6 percent and annual evaporation decreased by
375 mm. Developed animal husbandry can provide large quantities of organic
fertilizers, ameliorate the soil, improve soil fertility, promote planting,
and promote fulfillment of the target of "more livestock, more fertilizer
and more grain." The high-quality barnyard manure provided annually by
.Rongcheng County's animal husbandry is equal to 100 million jin of compound
chemical fertilizer. According. to calculations, 36 percent of the nitrogen
content, 56 percent of the phosphorus content and all the potassium content
of the soil of this county at present are derived from applied barnyard
manure.
Over the past years, we have consistently deepened our understanding of
developing forestry, animal husbandry and fishery, adopted some measures and
attained relatively satisfactory successes. However, last year's output
value of forestry, animal husbandry and fishery amounted to only 14.4 per-
cent of the total agricultural output value, of which the output value of
forestry accounted for 1.1 percent; that of animal husbandry, 11.2 percent;
and that of fishery, 2.1 percent. This shows that the province's structure
of agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery is still quite
irrational. This state of affairs requires that we further emancipate our
minds, broaden our horizons, and effect an upswing in the production of
forestry, animal husbandry and fishery as quickly as possible while paying
close attention to the production of grain, cotton and edible oil.
Shandong Province has quite rich favorable natural conditions and enormous
potential for developing forestry, animal husbandry and fishery. Apart from
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110 million mu of cultivated land, the province has 56 million mu of barren
hill land, beach wasteland and parcels of land scattered around villages,
at both: roadsides and along riverbanks, lands which are suitable for
forestry and animal husbandry and are equal to half of the area of the
existing cultivated land. The province has over 3,000 kilometers of coast-
line and more than 3 million mu of shallow sea and sandy soil which are
available for breeding but only one-tenth of which has been utilized; it
has over 4 million mu of freshwater composed of reservoirs, lakes, streams
and ponds as well as river courses which are available for breeding and the
greater part of which has not been utilized. The initial plans of the
province in this respect is that a good foundation for the production of
forestry is to be laid down within 3 years and all land suitable for forestry
is to be planted with trees within 5 or 7 years, both in mountainous areas
and hills as well as on plains. In the production of animal husbandry, while
ensuring the steady increase in pigs, it is necessary to substantially
develop plant-eating animals, such as cows, sheep, rabbits and geese. In the
production of fishery, while appropriately controlling the gathering of fish
and improving the quality of fish products, it is necessary to lay stress on
seawater and freshwater breeding.
Judged from the conditions of the province, to speed up the development of
forestry, animal husbandry and fishery, first, the leadership at various
levels must raise their understanding, help the vast numbers of cadres and
masses realize the important economic and social significance of grasping
forestry, animal husbandry and fishery through various ways and means, put
forestry, animal husbandry and fishery in the same important position as
agriculture and grasp well forestry, animal husbandry and fishery as we have
done with grain, cotton and edible oil. Second, the party's policies must be
implemented. It is necessary to assign the barren hills, beach wasteland
and all land suitable for planting trees to the production teams and
peasant households under contracts as quickly as possible, and in addition
assign part of the barren hills to the commune members for their sideline
production. In animal husbandry, while upholding public livestock breeding,
it is necessary to formulate and implement the relevant policies and vigor-
ously encourage the peasant households to engage in livestock breeding.
The main problem at present is that the level of pig breeding is decreasing.
This has come about as a result of the fact that after the introduction of
the production responsibility system, many communes and their subdivisions
abolished some past effective regulations concerning pig breeding and, as a
result, the enthusiasm of the masses was dampened. We are restoring, accord-
ing to different specific conditions, the regulations concerning land for
growing fodder, fodder rations, workpoints for collected manure, and the
measure of 1 jin of pork for 1 jin of grain and so on, regulations which are
aimed at encouraging commune members to breed more pigs. The units intro-
ducing the system of fixing output quotas for individual households and that
of assigning land to each household in exchange for fixed levies are prac-
ticing the assigned purchase of pigs and have signed contracts related to
this. Third, attention must be paid to the use of science. In paying close
attention to the science and technology of forestry, special stress should
be put on doing a good job in the breeding of fine varieties, the prevention
and cure of plant diseases and the elimination of pests, and in the
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popularization of the already proven scientific and technological results.
Take apples for example. The per mu yield of apples in the province is
1,000 jin, with the maximum per mu yield being 2,000 or 3,000 jin and the
minimum per mu yield being 400 or 500 jin. With the spread of some common
techniques for increasing production, the total apple output will increase
from the present 2.4 billion jin to 3 billion jin. Fourth, it is imperative
to grasp management. The key to grasping management lies in widely estab-
lishing and perfecting the production responsibility system in forestry,
animal husbandry and fishery, doing a proper job of business accounting, and
trying hard to reduce costs and improve economic results.
III. Take the Road of Comprehensive Operations Combining Agriculture,
Industry and Commerce
To modernize agriculture and help the peasants to become prosperous as soon
as possible, it is necessary to step out of the narrow scope of operation
where efforts are concentrated on agriculture alone without paying attention
to processing and commerce, to take the road of comprehensive operations
combining agriculture, industry and commerce, and to improve the commodity
turnover rate for agricultural and sideline products. Most of the raw mate-
rials of light industry in cities come from the countryside, which consti-
tutes the main market for processed commodities. Therefore, doing a good
job in locally processing agricultural and sideline products (including the
semiprocessing of raw materials for light industry) will lessen the pressure
on transportation and eliminate stockpiling, and economize on the time and
expenses needed to transport materials and to help the peasants double and
even triple their income by providing other ways than solely depending on
the income from supplying raw materials. It must still. be realized that the
so-called rational agricultural economic structure must be an economic
structure under which labor power is rationally distributed and time for
labor is sparingly used. Shandong Province has a population of more than
73 million, of which 66 million are peasants. Along with the universal
adoption of the production responsibility system and the constant improve-
ment in agricultural mechanization, the surplus labor in the countryside
will grow and grow. By developing commune- and brigade-run enterprises and
carrying out a diversified economy in a big way, we will be able to fully
utilize the labor resources of the countryside. This will not only provide
more commodities and boost the income of peasants, but also be of far-
reaching significance to the building of small cities and towns and to the
lessening of the differences between city and countryside, between industry
and agriculture. The labor power poured into industry, sideline occupations
and the diversified economy last year by Yantai Prefecture constituted
54.8 percent of the total agricultural labor power; the income from industry,
sideline occupations and the diversified economy made up 60.3 percent of the
total agricultural revenue, and the average income of every commune member
from collective distribution was 206 yuan. Looking at the province as a
whole, the production brigades whose average per capita distribution is above
400 to 500 yuan are exclusively, apart from the solely fishing teams and
cotton-growing teams, brigades whose industrial and sideline production and
diversified economy constitute a considerably large proportion of their
economy.
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Shandong Province has quite rich resources for engaging in the processing of
agricultural and sideline products, and the commune- and brigade-run enter-
prises'have broad prospects. Last year the province produced over 13 million
dan of cotton, of which a considerable part of the cottonseed could not be
shelled and extracted into oil, and oil extraction alone produced an income
of over 60 million yuan. The province has an annual yield of over 3 million
tons of cotton firewood, those of which were used in processing totaled only
20,000 tons, comprising no more than 1 percent. The total output of fresh
and dried fruit in the province is over 3 billion jin, of which the defec-
tive and substandard fruit which should be processed annually is about 400
million jin, but at present only about 4 million jin can be processed,
accounting for 1 percent. The potential for processing straw articles and
wickerworks is fairly large. The annual yield of corn husks which can be
used for straw weaving is 300 million jin, of which only 100 million jin
has been utilized; of the more than 57'million jin of wheat stalks, only
over 10 million jin has been utilized; and of the more than 90 million of
reeds, only 15 million jin has been utilized. Of the 4.7 million pieces of
goat skins purchased by the province, only 290,000 pieces have been processed;
of the purchased 170,000 pieces of cowhide, only 60,000 pieces have been
processed; and of the 23 million pieces of other furs, only 5 million pieces
have been processed. It can thus be seen that there are bright prospects for
the vigorous development of the processing of agricultural and sideline
products. If'things are done well in this respect, it will bring about
enormous economic results. For instance, processing sweet potatoes into
starch will increase income from this produce by 80 percent and further
processing of it into vermicilli will boost income from it by another 55
percent. The province has an annual yield of about 50 billion jin of sweet
potatoes, and if 5 percent of this yield is processed into vermicilli, an
additional more than 200 million yuan can be obtained.
To develop the processing industry of agricultural and sideline products, it
is imperative to study and find solutions to the problems of relevant poli-
cies and structures, gradually bring the industry into line with state plan-
ning, and provide it with support and assistance in materials, funds and
technical force. Besides first fulfilling the needs of the processing of
state enterprises, the communes and their subdivisions should be organized in
a big way to process those agricultural and sideline products which are
suitable for local processing. Regarding some processing of agricultural and
sideline products, the practice of establishing joint operations between the
state on the one hand and the communes and their subdivisions on the other is
encouraged. This practice will not only be conducive to finding a solution to
the problem of being insufficient in processing capacity and to improving
product quality and economic results, but also to resolving the contradic-
tion of collective and state enterprises competing with each other for raw
materials and tasks. It is necessary to provide reinforced planning and
guidance and to make overall plans and rational arrangements for the
processing orientation and processing quotas of a locality or a unit by
taking all factors into account and to guard against blindness.
With the development of agricultural production, and particularly the develop-
ment of industrial crops and a diversified economy, the existing commercial
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channels have more and more seriously failed to meet the needs of rural
commodity circulation. At present, there exists the widespread phenomenon
of "it is difficult to buy what we want to buy, and difficult to sell what
we want to sell" in the rural areas. Some agricultural and sideline
products are stockpiled in one place and are out of stock in another place.
Not to reform the existing rural commercial structure will seriously inter-
fere with agricultural production and the development of the entire agri-
cultural economy. Apart from grasping well the experiment of the structural
reform of supply and marketing cooperatives, to develop rural collective
commerce, it is still necessary to develop brigade-run commerce in an active
and orderly way, to turn the purchasing and marketing agencies of the supply
and marketing cooperatives into collective commerce in which the brigade is
taken as the basic accounting unit and assumes full responsibility for its
own profits and losses, and to set up production and marketing service com-
panies in charge of the commune's diversified economy and of organizing
production, purchasing raw materials, promoting the sale of products,
importing improved varieties from other places, directing and popularizing
new technology and signing contracts on behalf of the collective and the
commune members.
Readjusting the agricultural structure and improving economic results is an
extensive and profound change in the rural economy. In the course of this
change, we will constantly encounter some ideological obstacles, and some
new conditions and new problems will crop up. This requires the party com-
mittees at various levels to provide more effective and practical leader-
ship, to forcefully conduct ideological and political work, and to lead the
peasants in persevering on the socialist road. Seen from the present situa-
tion, in carrying out ideological and political work in the rural areas,
efforts should be concentrated on the following matters: It is necessary to
correctly handle the relationship between the state, the collective and the
individual, and earnestly give simultaneous consideration to the interests
of the three parties and not concentrate on one aspect alone. It is neces-
sary to correctly handle the relationship between state planning and guidance
on the one hand and respecting the decisionmaking power of production teams
and peasants on the other. Both the production teams and peasants must have
"small freedoms" in planting, operation and handing over to the state or
selling their products, and at the same' time subject themselves to state
planning and guidance. It is necessary to correctly handle the relationship
between the multifarious sectors, forms and channels of rural commerce and
the strengthening of market control and to enthusiastically carry out various
activities of transportation and sale, so as to enliven the market on the
one hand and to observe the state's policies and decrees, strictly forbid
smuggling, speculation and profiteering as well as dishonest practices on
the other. It is necessary to correctly handle the relationship between
accumulation and consumption. Since their income has increased, apart from
improving the conditions for their livelihood, the peasants are encouraged
to boost accumulation which is to be used in expanding reproduction. We
encourage hard work and frugality and oppose extravagance and waste. The
key to doing a good job in ideological and political work in the rural
areas lies in strengthening the building of the party basic organizations
and political power. After the implementation of the production
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responsibility system, the party and government work in some units was
weakened. This is a problem which warrants close attention and urgently
requires solution. It is necessary to give full play to the role of the
party branch as a fighting bastion and to the exemplary vanguard role of the
communists, to strengthen the functionary role of the basic political power
and to guard against separating oneself from collective affairs, and to
overcome weakness and laxity in leadership. So long as the work of the
party basic organizations and political power is strengthened and done
successfully, the readjustment of the agricultural structure and the healthy
progress of all rural work will be ensured of developing on a sound basis.
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MR LI DINGMING AND THE IDEA OF BETTER TROOPS AND SIMPLER ADMINISTRATION
Beijing RED FLAG in Chinese No T, 1 Apr 82 p 19
[Historical note by Huang Zheng [7806 1513]]
[Text] During the anti-Japanese war, our party launched a large-scale
campaign for better troops and simpler administration throughout the
liberated areas in accordance with the suggestion put forth by.Mr Li Dingming,
a patriotic personage in northern Shaanxi. In his article "Serve the People"
of September 1944, Comrade Mao Zedong said: "The idea of 'better troops and
simpler administration' was put forth by Mr Li Dingming, who is not a com-
munist. He made a good suggestion which is of benefit to the people, and we
have adopted it." ("Selected Works of Mao Zedong," Vol 3, p 954)
Li Dingming, born in Mizhi County, northern Shaanxi, in 1880, was a Hanlin
Academy degree holder of the Qing dynasty and served as section chief in the
government of Yulin Prefecture. He also had been a middle school teacher
and a-primary school principal in Yulin, Shaanxi Province. After that, he
earned his living by practicing medicine and farming in his native place.
After the establishment of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia revolutionary base area,
he acted as the head of the Finance Committee of Mizhi County and was elected
as the chairman of the county's Consultative Council in 1941. On 7 November
1941, he was elected vice chairman of the Consultative Council of the
Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region at its second session. On 20 November
of the same year, he was also elected vice chairman of the border regional
government. Mr Li Dingming held the CCP in great regard. While working with
CCP members, he made efforts to closely coordinate. and cooperate with them.
He also enjoyed high prestige in the border region.
It was at the beginning of November 1941, when he attended the second session
of the Consultative Council of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region that
Mr Li Dingming put forth his suggestion for better troops and simpler admin-
istration in order to improve the situation in the administrative organs of
the border region that was not appropriate to the state of the war at that
time. He said: "At a time when the people are undergoing hardships and the
natural resources are in short supply, if we do not want to restrict military
and administrative development owing to economic exhaustion, and if we do not
want to harm our economic lifeline as a result of our military and adminis-
trative development, the government should make overall plans for the economy
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and apply the principle of better troops and simpler administration. It
should keep its expenditures within the limits of income and draw up a
budget so as to maintain a good balance." "Militarily, we should make our
troops better and intensify their combat strength in line with the principle
of every man being able to fight and help to win battles. We should avoid
having the old and weak in the armed forces just to maintain a certain
number.. Meanwhile, the government should practice simple administration
and streamline its organs. It should pursue a policy of limited staff with
high efficiency and proficiency in order to avoid the existence of unwieldy
organs with redundant staff and the waste of manpower and financial
resources." On 18 November, the session passed Mr Li's proposal by a
majority of 165 votes, and it was to be "submitted to the government for
immediate action." In its declaration., the session formally proclaimed that
"the government must practice simple administration and streamline its
organs." In accordance with the opinion of the Consultative Council of the
Border Region, the government made a decision to act accordingly and at the
first government administrative meeting, it set up a special committee for
this purpose.
Comrade Mao Zedong attached great importance to the suggestion made by Mr Li
Dingming. He underlined in red the essential paragraphs and jotted them in
his notebook with this comment: "This is a good method, which serves as an
effective cure for our red tape, bureaucratism and formalism." At the
beginning of December 1941, the CCP Central Committee decided to popularize
this method adopted in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region. It issued
the instruction for "better troops and simpler administration" to all anti-
Japanese base areas, calling for overhauling organizations at all levels,
streamlining organs, strengthening grassroots units, enhancing efficiency
and practicing economy in manpower and materials. Following that,.the CCP
Central Committee issued some further instructions and decisions on the
issue of making troops better and simplifying administration. Yanan's
JIEFANG RIBAO repeatedly published editorials and sponsored discussion
meetings on this subject.
When he was vice chairman of the border regional government, Mr Li Dingming
earnestly carried out all the instructions issued by the CCP Central Com-
mittee. At that time, he was already over 60, and though in poor health,
he was still very resolute in his work. In his inaugural address, Mr Li
Dingming said in all sincerity: "After having read and studied some differ-
ent books about socialism, I have come to understand that socialism is the
only doctrine which is absolutely fair. In the world today, all countries
are bound to follow the road of socialism. Now, China is besieged by a
formidable enemy and is short of natural resources. There are numerous
difficulties in pursuing socialism. Nevertheless, at this juncture of life
and-death, we must endeavor to carry forward socialism." Through three
streamlinings, the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region achieved great suc-
cesses in its work. In his report "Summary of Streamlining the Border
Regional Government" at the fourth meeting of the border regional government
on 7 January 1944, Mr Li Dingming pointed out: "The border regional govern-
ment has merged and reduced its internal offices by one-fourth. The organs
directly under the government have been reduced from 35 to 22. The number
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of their staff has been cut down from 469 to 279. The counties in the
border region have also been greatly restructured. We have attained our
goals in five aspects--streamlining, unifying, promoting efficiency,
practicing economy and combating bureaucratism."
The streamlining carried out in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region and
other anti-Japanese base areas played an important role in overcoming the
severe economic difficulties at'that time, continuing the protracted war
and winning final victory in the anti-Japanese war. We should never forget
the important contribution made by Mr Li Dingming in this respect.
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IT IS IMPERATIVE TO UPHOLD THE BASIC PRINCIPLES OF MARX' THEORY OF
REPRODUCTION--PART THREE
Beijing RED FLAG in Chinese No 7, 1 Apr 82 pp 20-25
[Article by Deng Liqun [6772 0550 5028]]
[Text] III. Giving Priority to the Growth of the Production of the Means
of Production Is the General Law of Expanded Reproduction
As we mentioned before, during the period of readjustment, it is inevitable
for heavy industry to grow a little bit slowly or even not to grow tempo-
rarily. But can we conclude that the growth rate of heavy industry should
always be lower than the growth rate of light industry and the proportion of
heavy industry output value should always be smaller than that of the light
industry output value? Should we take this as a policy to be adopted in our
long-term planning? Some comrades hold this view. I deem that this view is
inadmissible and we will make big mistakes if we accept this view. The
comrades holding this view do not distinguish provisional measures from
long-term policies and do not understand that, generally speaking, during
the period of readjusting the economy, heavy industry should develop a little
bit slowly while the production of light industrial products in short supply
should grow faster, for it will be impossible to implement the policy of
readjustment if we do not do our best to look after the industrial depart-
ments producing products in short supply, especially when energy supplies are
limited. Yet while elaborating long-term plans, we still must uphold the
principle of giving priority to the growth of the production of the means
of production. Giving up this principle will result in the prolonged back-
wardness of heavy industry, stagnation of our light industry, agriculture and
even of heavy industry itself (especially transportation and the energy
industry) because of a lack of an increasingly perfected technology and
equipment, and because of the permanent strain on our raw material and
energy supplies, and thus give rise to very great adverse effects on the
development of the national economy. Therefore, although we are temporarily
reducing the proportion of heavy industry, we should not regard this as a
long-term policy. In the long run, it is still necessary to increase the
proportion of heavy industry gradually and appropriately. Even during the
period of readjustment, energy and transportation are still regarded as key
sectors when we arrange capital construction. This is indispensable for
ensuring smooth expanded reproduction. This is all the more so in the
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process of industrialization, during which machines are to replace manual
labor in production.
Not long ago, some comrades from theoretical circles put forward the formal
proposition that we should build our society into an industrialized society
with a light industrial structure. We adopted this proposal while drafting
a document in April 1979 pursuant to the Central Committee's instructions.
The document has not been completed and this proposal has consequently been
given up. We might enquire into this proposal while conducting research.
But taking this as a policy to be implemented deserves much debate. We want
to substantially develop the production of consumer goods for daily use, and
especially the production of consumer durables, so as to increase the sup-
plies of these products continuously. But if there is insufficient energy,
no new types of materials, and no modern technology and equipment, it will be
impossible to produce consumer goods in such a way that the growing demands
of the broad masses, both quantitatively and qualitatively, can be met. It
is impossible to carry out modern construction without giving priority to
the growth of the production of the means of production. There is no doubt
that we must grasp light industry. We have not done enough in this regard
and we still have to make great efforts to boost light industry. But we
ought to be more far-sighted. That is the very reason why we should study
economic principles and far-reaching policies. We still must uphold the
principle of giving priority to the growth of the production of the means
of production. In other words, the growth of heavy industry still must take
priority. In the past, Comrade Mao Zedong always said that heavy industry
should be the center of our economic construction, and he did not deny this
even when talking about arranging the national economy according to the order
of agriculture, light industry and heavy industry. Here the point is to have
a clear idea of the direction in which heavy industry should render its
services. In 1979, pointing to the metallurgical departments' blindness in
respect to both output and quality, Comrade Chen Yun proposed that the
metallurgical industry change its service orientation. He cited housing in
the countryside as an example. Peasants were having difficulty in erecting
houses for lack of timber in the countryside. The metallurgical departments
could have produced some metal parts and supplied them to the countryside.
This applies not only to the metallurgical departments, but also to all other
heavy industry departments, which should orientate their services correctly,
always bear in mind the needs of developing agriculture and light industry
and the needs of the people's livelihood, and serve agriculture, light indus-
try, the market and the people's livelihood. At the same time, they should
bear in mind the needs of national defense. In addition, they should heed
the demand of the international market so as to increase exports and help
develop the domestic economy. In the past, we exported more semifinished
products, such as tungsten ore, than finished products and even had to
import many finished products, such as tungsten filaments, and thus suffered
great losses. Heavy industry now has the task of readjusting its service
orientation and should consider what to do in the light of the needs of
agriculture, light industry, the market, the people's livelihood and exports.
Meanwhile, the internal structure, or the internal proportionate relations
of heavy industry, should be streamlined so that heavy industry can adapt
itself to the readjustment of its service orientation. In the past 30 years,
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we have laid down quite a sizable foundation for construction, building up
fixed industrial assets amounting to over 410 billion yuan and erecting
over 400,000 industrial and communications enterprises. Now a very urgent
and important task is to carry out, step by step, technological transforma-
tion on the foundation of modernization that we have built.
If we fail to carry out gradual technological transformation, the equipment
in these enterprises will become more backward in a few years, and still
less will they be modernized. If heavy industry's service orientation is
correct, and plans and restructuring are carried out according to this
orientation, there will be ample scope for it to play its role, its output
value can be raised, its proportion can be increased, and its position and
role in the national economy will become more important.
We propose that now, and for quite a long period in the future, on the
industrial side, the development of the production of the means of consump-
tion should occupy an important place. We should first ensure fulfilling
the needs of developing industries producing consumer goods whether in
respect to energy and material supplies, investment and allocation of
credits, arrangement for the use of scientific and technological forces, and
selection of research topics, or in respect to the introduction of technology
and equipment from abroad. Does this contradict the principle of giving
priority to the growth of the production of the means of production? There
is no contradiction as long as the departments producing the means of pro-
duction follow the correct service orientation, because the production of
consumer goods cannot develop without the supplies of the means of produc-
tion, or to put it the other way around, only if the production of the
means of production grows first, will it be possible to meet, promptly and
sufficiently, the needs of the departments producing the means of consump-
tion in respect to machinery, equipment and newly discovered industrial
raw materials.
Some comrades refute the principle of giving priority to the growth of the
means of production from the viewpoint of policy while some refute it from
the viewpoint of theory. The arguments of the latter are, in summary:
According to one argument, this principle is theoretically unsound; accord-
ing to another argument, it plays its role only under certain historical
conditions and is therefore not a universal law.
Why is this principle theoretically unsound? The following arguments
deserve to be brought up for discussion.
First, giving priority to the growth of the means of production is not Marx'
viewpoint and Marx' opinion. Giving priority to the growth of the means of
production is not the condition for expanded reproduction in the capitalist
society. What are the facts? Marx in fact did not make such a generaliza-
tion. It is Lenin who did so. But Lenin entirely followed Marx' theory
when making this generalization. While interpreting Marx' theory concerning
the condition for realizing expanded reproduction, Lenin included techno-
logical progress in the formula, made a detailed analysis by means of charts,
and then concluded: "Thus, we have seen that the production of the means of
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production which manufacture the means of production grows fastest, then
follows the production of the means of production manufacturing the means
of consumption, the production of the means of consumption grows most slowly.
Even without the study that Marx made in his 'Das Kapital,' volume two, it
would be possible to come to the above conclusion by referring to the law
according to which constant capital tends to grow faster than variable capi-
tal, because the statement that the means of production grow fastest is
merely another way of saying that this law applies to the total social
product." ("Collected Works of Lenin," Vol 1, p 7) Under the capitalist
system, technological progress and replacement of manual labor by machines
find expression in a high growth rate of constant capital in comparison with
variable capital. So whether Lenin is right in including technological
progress (constant capital grows faster than variable capital) in his analysis
depends on whether what "has been included" represents Marx' viewpoint. Who-
ever has read "Das Kapital," volume one, knows that in the chapter "The
Process of Capital Accumulation," Marx demonstrated by detailed discussion
that under the capitalist system, technological progress finds expression in
the downward tendency of the ratio between variable capital and constant
capital. As a matter of fact, Marx expressed this opinion on many occasions.
For instance, in "The Theory of Surplus Value" he said: "With the develop-
ment of capitalist production, the part of capital invested in machinery and.
raw material grows while the part of capital spent on wages decreases. This
is an. irrefutable fact." ("Collected Works of Marx and Engels," Vol 26,
p 402) All this proves that the argument that Lenin's generalization is not
Marx' viewpoint is without foundation.
Second, technological progress can also be achieved through economizing on
means of production and, under this condition, technological progress will
not find expression in the downward tendency of the ratio between variable
capital and constant capital; according to the same argument, what has just
been said is not covered by the analysis of Marx and Lenin. But, as a matter
of fact, while analyzing the reproduction of capital in a society, Marx and
Lenin never neglected to consider that more advanced and more perfect tech-
nology and equipment would replace backward ones. We know that while
analyzing simple reproduction in "Das Kapital," volume two, chapter three,
Marx expounded on how the two kinds of constant capital were replaced,
including the replacement of value and physical replacement, which, besides,
should correspond to one another; he also expounded on how additional con-
stant capital was derived while analyzing expanded reproduction. As he said
.in the above-mentioned chapter, for replacement and addition alike "most of
the means of production undergoes continuous renovation as a result of
industrial progress. Therefore, instead of in the original form, replace-
ment takes place in the form of renovation." ("Collected Works of Marx and
Engels," Vol 24, pp 190-191) That is why he divided expanded reproduction
into extrinsic expansion and intrinsic expansion. So-called intrinsic
expansion means raising the efficiency of the means of production.
Of course, the point is not what Marx' and Lenin's views were, but whether
their views are out of date.
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It is true that since the middle of this century, especially since World
War II, the developed capitalist countries have been increasingly resorting
to economizing on the means of production for achieving technological
progress. As a result, the capital component tends to decrease. For
instance, in the United States, the ratios between capital and wages for
the processing industries were: 4.12 in 1909, 3.26 in 1919, 3.67 in 1929,
3.51 in`1937, 2.49 in 1948, 2.36 in 1953 and 2.45 in 1968.
Does this mean Marx' principle that with technological progress, the ratio
between variable capital and constant capital tends to decrease, and that,
therefore, the argument that the growth of the means of production takes
priority is no longer valid? We should admit that under the condition of
achieving technological progress through economizing on the consumption of
the means of production, this process, although not as evident as when manual
labor was being replaced by machines, is still taking place. Let us make
some simple analyses. What has constituted the economies of the means of
production realized by the industries in the capitalist world in recent
years? Lower consumption of raw materials and other material inputs, mainly
owing to newly discovered raw materials and improvements in technology and
equipment; lower expenditure on the so-called negative part of fixed assets,
that is, buildings and projects. Here, many factors are effective only for
a short period and will not be able to play a role forever. As regards the
so-called positive part of fixed assets (or to cite Marx, "the skeleton
system and muscle system of production"), the proportion of machinery and
equipment has been increasing. Taking the major material production depart-
ments of the United States as an example, the ratios between their capital
value and wages were: 1.06 in 1929, 1.1 in 1937, 1.12 in 1940, 1.07 in
1950, 1.27 in 1958 and 1.27 in 1968. While demonstrating that "in the
process of capital accumulation accompanied by capital buildup, variable
capital decreases relatively," Marx said: "With the lapse of 'time, one day
old capital will be renewed from head to foot, will cast off its skin and
will regenerate in the form of better technology, under which form, a smaller
amount of labor will suffice for operating a larger quantity of machines and
raw materials." ("Collected Works of Marx and Engels," Vol 23, p 689) Have
the facts in the past decades refuted this thesis of Marx' or further
corroborated it? Evidently, they have corroborated this thesis.
Third, the production relations in capitalist society are the condition for
the law of giving priority to the growth of the means of production to
operate, and this law ceases to exist under the socialist system. What
should be our view of this argument? Of course, there is an acute contra-
diction between accumulation and consumption under the capitalist system,
'where constant capital grows faster than variable capital. In other words,
more and more newly formed capital shifts into the production departments
manufacturing the means of production, even to the extent that the two
major categories become disproportionate. This has already become an objec-
tive law of economic development in capitalist society. But, just as Lenin
pointed out, "Replacement by machines of manual labor is not 'absurd' at all,
on the contrary, this reflects the role of all technological progress made by
mankind." ("Collected Works of Lenin," Vol 1, p 88) In "Das Kapital,"
volume three, chapter two, which was rewritten by Engels according to Marx'
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manuscript, there is a passage which reads: "Labor productivity rises just
because: the share of living labor decreases while the share of past labor
increases; but since the total amount of labor embodied in commodities
decreases, the decrease in living labor exceeds largely the increase in
past labor." However, "as regards capital, the law of raising labor produc-
tivity does not operate unconditionally. As regards capital, this kind of
productivity may be raised not when living labor can be saved in general,
but only when the economy in paid living labor exceeds what is added to
past labor." ("Collected Works of Marx and Engels," Vol 25, pp 290, 292)
A very clearcut distinction has been made: the decrease in the share of
living labor and the increase in the share of past labor, and the resulting
decrease in the total amount of labor contained in products, is a universal
law which operates in societies with any social and economic structure; the
feature peculiar to capitalist society is that instead of seeking to econo-
mize on living labor in general, capital seeks to economize on the part used
for remuneration of living labor. Just because of this, under the capitalist
system, giving priority to the growth of the means of production is related
to the phenomenon that the production of the means of consumption falls
behind that of the means of production. But the production of the means of
production cannot be separated too far and for a long period from the
development of the production of the means of consumption. So when the
production of the means of production has developed to a certain extent,
there will be fluctuations and even crises, after which the lost equilibrium
will be restored.
Production in a socialist society is, by nature, not for seeking profits but
for meeting the needs of workers; it does not develop blindly but according
to plan. We are absolutely in a position to ensure, by consciously observing
the law of giving priority to the growth of the means of production, timely
and sufficient supplies of the means of production to the two major cate-
gories so as to expand reproduction smoothly, and at the same time to ensure,
by consciously observing the law of coordinated development of the two major
categories, a correlative development of the production of the means of
consumption and the production of the means of production while enhancing
the development of the production of the means of production. Opposing the
aim of production and the planned and proportionate development of produc-
tion in socialist society to giving priority to the development of the
production of the means of production, and asserting that giving priority
.to the development of the production of the means of production will cause
the two major categories and even the entire national economy to become dis-
proportionate and will make it impossible for production to meet the workers'
needs in their material and cultural life, are views which do not have any
foundation. For instance, under the capitalist system, a relative population
surplus, or a huge contingent of jobless people, will inevitably appear in
the course of capital accumulation, as the capital component increases. This
is not only the inevitable consequence of, but also the condition for, pro-
duction in a capitalist society. We also want to continuously replace back-
ward equipment by more advanced equipment. That is why we must give
priority to the growth of the production of the means of production and
would otherwise be unable to realize modernization. But while determining
the spheres and steps of the modernizations, we must give due consideration
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to the employment situation. In our country, which has a large population
and an unfavorable starting point, employment is a great issue. Therefore,
it is impossible to modernize our country quickly, and for a long period of
time, manual labor and semimechanized production on the one hand and
mechanized and automated production on the other hand will coexist. This is
not only because it is impossible to accumulate so much capital overnight,
but also because only in this way can more jobs be created. Since the 3d
Plenary Session of the 11th CCP Central Committee, we have arranged jobs for
over 26 million people while readjusting the national economy at the same
time. Would capitalists have done the same thing? They definitely would
not, for their method is to lay off as many people as possible. It is not
only out of economic considerations but also out of political considerations
that we have been doing so, because in this way we can in return secure
social stability and unity, which are the indispensable conditions for build-
ing a modernized socialist country. In order to realize modernization as
well as to arrange for employment, we must appropriately resolve the con-
tradiction between the level of employment and the raising of labor produc-
tivity.
In the past, our national economy became disproportionate more than once.
Since the 3d Plenary Session of the 11th CCP Central Committee, investiga-
tions and summarization of past experiences have been making it more and
more clear to everyone that the policies guiding our economic work which
were of the "leftist" ideological persuasion were the main causes. Policies
of the "leftist" ideological persuasion included blindly pursuing high
targets., biased interpretation of the giving of priority to the growth of
the production of the means of production, and stressing the development of
the steel and iron industry alone. As a result, the two major categories
became disproportionate. Misinterpretation of the principle and the prin-
ciple itself are two totally different matters, which should not be mixed up
in our discussions. In the past, things went wrong in this regard, not
because we upheld the principle of giving priority to the growth of the
production of the means of production, but, on the contrary, because we
acted against this principle, because correctly applying this principle
requires us that we maintain a. harmonious correlation between the two
major categories.
Some comrades fail to make this distinction and ascribe the disproportion
to the principle of giving priority to the growth of the production of the
means of production, and even say that if this principle is alleged to be
a law, then it can only be a law disrupting the overall equilibrium and a
law disrupting the national economy. Other comrades even say that if we
had started our industrialization from light industry, we would have accumu-
lated much more capital and would have avoided the drastic ups and downs in
our economic development. Thus, they have brought up an issue to be treated
very seriously: Was the policy during our first 5-year plan ultimately
right or wrong? As everybody knows, the industrial foundation in old China
was very weak. Before the war of resistance against Japan, modern industry
only represented slightly over 10 percent of the total industrial and
agricultural output value, while heavy industry represented 23 percent of
the total industrial output value. In 1949, steel output was only 158,000
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tons, while most of the machine-building enterprises were small factories
capable of carrying out repairs only. Under such circumstances, if economic
construction had not been centered on heavy industry, it would have been
impossible to equip light industry and agriculture with comparatively
advanced technology so as to realize industrialization. Just because our
party adopted the correct policy of taking heavy industry as the key sector,
we were able to quickly establish our own modern machine-building industry,
power equipment industry, metallurgical industry, mining equipment industry,
high-alloy steel industry, important nonferrous metals industry and other
burgeoning industries, and thus remarkably change the backward outlook of
our industry as well as lay a solid foundation for further developing our
national economy. During the first 5-year plan, while ensuring that the
development of heavy industry remained the first priority, we also succeeded
in developing light industry and agriculture. During these 5 years, the
growth rate of the total industrial and agricultural output value averaged
10.9 percent per annum with the total heavy industry output value growing
at an average rate of 25.4 percent per annum, the total agriculture output
value growing at an average rate of 4.5 percent per annum and the total
light industry output value growing at an average rate of 12.9 percent per
annum. Facts have proved that the policy of giving priority to the develop-
ment of the production of the means of production implemented during the
first 5-year plan was correct. What we need to correct now is the misinter-
pretations of this policy, instead of the policy itself, which we can by-no
means give up.
Let us now discuss whether giving priority to the development of the produc-
tion of the means of production is a law common to all forms of expanded
reproduction, or a law which operates only under certain historical condi-
tions.
First, as some comrades put it, let us have a look at "real economic life."
Nobody denies that in the 19th century and in the first few decades of the
20th century, the production of the means of production took priority in
capitalist industrial development, and only since the middle of the 20th
century, especially in the decades after World War II, have the first cate-
gory and the second category on the whole developed in parallel, with the
growth rate of the second category exceeding that of the first category
occasionally. This means that, as regards the development of capitalism,
the latter situation has a shorter history than the former one, and that
even the latter situation needs to be analyzed in detail. If we take the
machine-building industry alone, which is the most important production
department of the means of production, and compare it with light industry
(the textile, garment, footwear, foodstuffs industries and so on), we see
that the growth rate of the former has still been higher than that of the
latter. From 1955 to 1974, the growth rate of industry in the developed
capitalist countries averaged 5 percent per annum, with the growth rate of
the machine-building industry averaging 5.6 percent per annum and that of
light industry 3.8 percent per annum. The proportion of the machine-
building industry in industry as a whole rose to 36.2 percent in 1974 from
31.3 percent in 1955, while that of light industry declined to 27.7 percent
in 1974 from 31.5 percent in 1955. In the United States, from 1955 to 1977,
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the average growth rate of the total national product was 3.2 percent per
annum, that of industry as a whole was 3.6 percent per annum while the
average growth rate of the machine-building industry was 5 percent per annum,
that of the electrical engineering and electronics industries 5.2 percent per
annum, that of the precision machine-tool industry 6.7 percent per annum;
the only, exception was the industry manufacturing means of transportation,
recording a lower-than-average annual growth rate, that is, 3.5 percent. In
the case of Japan, between 1951 and 1974, the average growth rate of the
national product was 9 percent per annum, that of industry as a whole was
13.7 percent per annum, while the average growth rate of the machine-
building industry was as high as 19.1 percent per annum. In West Germany.,
England and France, the machine-building industry has also grown more or less
faster than industry as a whole and than the national product. These figures
show that we cannot simply deny that in the past few decades priority has
been given to the growth of the means of production.
Of course, in addition to machinery and equipment, the machine-building
industry also produces a part of the consumer goods for daily use. Yet, even
taking into account this factor, the above judgment remains valid, because on
the one hand the machine-building industry mainly produces machinery and
equipment rather than consumer goods for daily use, and on the other hand,
the textile industry, which falls under the category of light industry, also
produces a part of the products used in production. Based on data published
in the July 1981 issue of the American periodical "Manual of Basic Economic
Statistics," some comrades have used the end-products on the market to calcu-
late the growth rates of the industrial consumer goods and equipment in the
United States from 1947 to 1980. The results are: the consumer goods
increased by 341 percent while the equipment increased by 489 percent.
These are very convincing data.
In the second place, even without making the above detailed analysis, there'
still remains the problem of how to grasp the relationship between economic'
laws and economic phenomena. While speaking of "the law of decreasing
profitability," Marx said: "Some reactions will necessarily produce their
effects to resist and counterbalance the effects of this general law, making
it a law of tendency. Therefore, we call the decline in general profitabil-
ity a downward tendency." ("Collected Works of Marx and Engels," Vol 25,
p 258) While analyzing the general tendency of raising the agricultural
component in the capitalist countries during the 19th century, Lenin also
said: "We lay stress on the word 'general,' because both Marx and his
disciples have always regarded this law as a law of general tendency in the
.capitalist world rather than a law operating under every particular circum-
stance." ("Collected Works of Lenin," Vol 4, p 93) No economic laws (in
fact even no laws in general) exist in isolation without encountering the
reactions of the factors which obstruct and resist their effects. Therefore,
they can only be "laws of general tendency," and "real economic life" can by
no means always correspond to economic laws without the slightest departure
from them. Taking the law of giving priority to the production of the means
of production as an example, in the past few decades, this law has encoun-
tered many factors obstructing and resisting its effects in the major
capitalist countries. What we mentioned before while talking about the
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changes in the capital component was this factor. As a matter of fact, there
are many other factors. For instance, depreciation of the means of produc-
tion, increase in staff and workers' nominal wages, development of service
industries and so forth. The development of service industries will boost
the demand for consumer goods on the one hand and does not generate a great
demand for the means of production on the other hand. This cannot but be
reflected by the ratio between the growth rates of the two major categories.
It is particularly worth pointing out that since World War II, the growth
rates of the production of minerals and fuels in the major capitalist coun-
tries have been noticeably lower than the growth rate of industry as a whole.
Why could this situation exist? This is because these countries have become
more dependent on imports for these products. According to statistics, the
energy output of the United States in 1950, calculated on the basis of
standard fuels, was 1,165,060,000 tons while the consumption amounted to
1,139,880,000 tons. Output exceeded consumption. But in 1958, consumption
started exceeding the output, and in 1975 the consumption amounted to
2,349,550,000 tons while output was only 2,036,670,000 tons, the difference
being 312,880,000 tons. In England, the standard fuels output in 1950 was
219.88 million tons while consumption amounted to 221.03 million tons. So
the difference was not very big. But in 1975, the consumption rose to
295.33 million tons while output declined to 183.99 million tons, the dif-
ference being 111.34 million tons. The following data well illustrate the
degrees of dependence on imported minerals and fuels on the part of the
major capitalist countries.
The amount of products imported as a percentage of domestic supplies for
some products in 1975:
.
United States
England
France
West Germany
Japan (1976)
Crude oil
33.1
99.4
98.9
94.2
99.7
Coal
3.9
40.9
3.3
76.6
Iron ore
29.0
28.1
77.9
93.0
99.6
Raw materials and fuels account for a very large share of the means of pro-
duction. If this part of the means of production is not produced inside the
country, this cannot but be reflected in the growth rates of the means of
production.
Economic life in a society is always related to political life. Therefore,
in addition to economic factors, internal and external political factors
also affect the effects of economic laws. This has to be taken into account
while investigating how economic laws operate. We will not discuss this
point here.
Factors counterbalancing the effects of the law of giving priority to the
production of the means of production definitely exist in the socialist
economy. For instance, although the socialist economy is basically an
economy which develops according to plan and therefore does not have economic
crises owing to overproduction as does the capitalist system, the production
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of the means of consumption and the production of the means of production
will become seriously disproportionate for various reasons, especially
because' policies guiding economic work inappropriately and unilaterally
emphasize the growth of the production of the means of production. Then,
it will be necessary, as well as possible, to take the initiative in
readjusting, suitably slowing the growth rates of the production of the
means of production and substantially accelerating the development of the
production of the means of consumption. Therefore, even under socialist
conditions, it is impossible to permanently give priority to the production
of the means of production.
Many people have enumerated and analyzed the factors which resist and
obstruct the effects of the law of giving priority to the production of the
means of production, yet have concluded that this law is not a universal
law. This conclusion cannot be approved. We ought to pay attention to the
"particular circumstance" arising from the obstruction of and resistance to
the effects of economic laws. But this does not permit us to deny the
existence of economic laws. If we adopt this method of analyzing problems,
we may, I am afraid, deny any economic laws. (End)
CSO: 4004/30
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ON GOAL, BASE AND SPEED
Beijing RED FLAG in Chinese No 7, 1 Apr 82 pp 26-27
[Article by Jin Wen [6855 3080]]
[Text] In reforming society and pushing it forward, the proletariat always
maintains a clear goal. Our long-range goal is to realize communism. And
our present goal is to build a modernized and powerful socialist country
with high degree of democracy and civilization. In order to attain this
goal, we have to start from the base of actual national strength. In the
course of working toward this goal, we have to maintain a certain speed.
Then, how should we decide on a really suitable speed? There are two
methods. The first is to draw up a plan for capital construction based on a
"high speed," which would be the product of subjective thinking; and the
other is to draw a plan based on the present national strength.
From the statement "The scale of construction must conform with national
strength" by Comrade Chen Yun, we see that he opposes the former and advo-
cates the latter. He said: "The scale of construction must conform with
the financial and material resources of the country. Whether it conforms
with the latter is the criterion for judging whether the economy is stable.
In a big country like ours with a population of 600 million, economic
stability is extremely important. If the scale of construction is beyond
the limits which financial and material resources can meet, then it is
simply a rash advance and it will give rise to economic disorder; if the
former and the latter are in balance, the economy will remain stable. Of
course, it is no good to be so conservative that a reasonable speed of
construction is not maintained." Initially, it would seem that it is not
economic development but "economic stability," and it is not speed but
"conformity," that was emphasized here. But actually this is not the case.
All people who support the socialist cause hope that our country's construc-
tion can be pushed forward more rapidly. Their hope is reasonable. The
point is that development cannot emerge out of a void, and the speed must
be subject to the limitations of the base. The reason is that the develop-
ment of material productive forces is a continuous process. Marx pointed
out in a letter to P. V. Annenkov: "Men are not free arbiters of their
productive forces--which are the basis of all their history--for every pro-
ductive force is an acquired force, the product of previous activity. The
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productive forces are, therefore, the result of practical human energy; but
this energy is itself circumscribed by the conditions in which men find
themselves, by the productive forces already acquired, by the social form
which exists before they do, which they do not create, which is the product
of the preceding generation. Because of the simple fact that every suc-
ceeding,generation finds itself in possession of the productive forces
acquired by the preceding generation, which serve as the raw materials for
new production, a cohesiveness arises in human history, which is the basis
of man's history." ("Selected Works of Marx and Engels," Vol 4, p 321)
Similarly, in marching toward the goal of socialist modernization, we cannot
do without a starting point, but the starting point is not up to us to
choose. It can only be the existing base, the existing national strength,
which mainly means the present productive forces. How and at what speed
we approach our goal are not decided by people's will. Although a social
movement is a process of material movement with the people's participation,
and man's subjective initiative is by no means negligible, the social move-
ment can never be freed from the limitation of national strength. The
favorable factors embodied in national strength, at present or in the future,
are helpful to us in raising the speed of development;.. meanwhile, the
unfavorable factors will always affect it.
Economic development, being the growth of material force, must be handled
with meticulous care. Only a solid, steady and substantial speed of develop-
ment with good economic results will be good for our work of approaching the
goal. And those "high speeds" with great fluctuations and bad economic
results will be detrimental to both the country and the people. They can
never speed up construction; in fact, they actually slow progress.
The lessons we have learned over the past years show that one-sidedly pursu-
ing "high speed" and "high standard" and disregarding the compatibility
between the construction scale and national strength will inevitably give
rise to serious imbalances among various sectors of the national economy,
production of substandard goods, tremendous waste of material resources, an
upsurge of unhealthy tendencies in the economic field and an upsetting of the
normal socialist economic order. In other words, they will bring about
economic unstability or economic disorder. A country whose economy cannot
be developed steadily will never be able to make remarkable and substantial
progress although it puts both time and effort into this. Then what is meant
by stable development? It means that every step is a substantial move for-
ward. The speed, though not so "splendid" on an annual basis, will be
marvelous in the long term. That is what we call striving for "stability"
on the basis of "compatibility," and in turn, striving for development on
the basis of "stability"; taking the whole situation into account and paying
attention to real effect. Therefore, striving for stability can by no means
be regarded as a rightist practice.
It is quite obvious that the idea of compatibility between the construction
scale and national strength does not mean to oppose the demand for raising
speed. On the contrary, it should not obstruct the achieving of a "reason-
able speed." In his article "The Present Financial and Economic Situation
and Certain Methods To Overcome Difficulties," Comrade Chen Yun said: "The
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basic idea of our work should be: striving for high speed while being well
prepared for stagnation. We should try our best to achieve anything which is
favorable to the increase of agricultural production. However, we must be
aware that we will probably not reach the ideal speed although everything has
been done. Therefore, we have to be well prepared for stagnation." Despite
the difficulties caused by the "leftist" guiding ideology and rash actions
at that time, Comrade Chen Yun remained in favor of maintaining a certain
speed. "Striving for high speed" means to reach a relatively high speed;
while being "well prepared for stagnation" means taking into consideration
the minimum speed which we could reach with our "very best efforts." Here
the "stagnation" owing to standing idle is intolerable, and it has nothing
,to do with that "stagnation" we mentioned in the idea of being "well prepared
for stagnation." Similarly, although today we have suffered much from left-
ist rash practices in economic construction, we should never go to the other
extreme and think that it is better to develop the economy as slow as possi-
ble.
Starting from and keeping compatible with the national strength is the mate-
rial prerequisite for us in determining the speed of development.. To do so
is not a negative but positive act. However, there is emerging an idea in
some places that gives no importance to speed in the present period of
readjustment. Naturally such an idea leads to slackness and low efficiency.
It is true that we started the economic readjustment in the beginning of the
1980's mainly because we had promoted the "high speed" and "high standards"
in the past under the guidance of the "leftist" thinking which brought about
a serious imbalance among various sectors of the national economy and
severely undermined the national economy. Of course, the economic readjust-
ment has to clear away the "leftist" guiding ideology, and lower the imprac-
tical "high speed" and "high standards" to a practical level in actual work.
Therefore, some units have to be "closed, suspended, merged or shifted."
What are all these measures for? They are intended to completely get rid of
the "high speed" which caused great fluctuations and disregarded economic
results in the past, and to replace it with a steady speed of development
which will produce good economic results. Therefore, readjustment does not
mean that we do not pay any more attention to the speed of development, but
that we are to achieve an integration of speed and results, so that we can
take a firm stand and advance in a better way on a more concrete basis.
Thus, we will be able to turn the impractical "high speed" into a solid and
substantial speed.
Such a speed can be reached and is bound to produce prominent results in the
period of economic readjustment. This readjustment will on the one hand
readjust the proportionate relationships between industry and agriculture,
between light industry and heavy industry, and between accumulation and con-
sumption; and on the other hand, readjust product structure, technical struc-
ture, enterprise structure and organization structure, and rationalize
economic structure. If only we can conscientiously carry out these tasks
the national economy will be able to maintain a certain growth in the
readjustment which will bring substantially more benefits to the people. In
the future, following the successful completion of economic readjustment and
reform, our country's economic construction will surely achieve higher speed
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on the road of steady progress and healthy development. However, we should
never forget the truth that "the scale of construction must conform with
the national strength." Only by'doing things in a practical and realistic
way and making progress in solid steps can we reach real speed on the road
toward-achieving our goal.
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WHAT IS CREDIT INFLATION, AND IS IT THE SAME AS CURRENCY INFLATION?
Beijing RED FLAG in Chinese No 7, 1 Apr 82 p 28
[Article by Chen Wenlin [7115 2429 2451] in "Questions and Answers" column]
[Text] Answer: Credit inflation refers to the volume of credit exceeding
the sources of credit. In this case, the corresponding supply of goods and
materials cannot keep pace with the growth of loans. The function of credit
is to regulate social funds. In general, the volume of credits created by
banks is based on the amount of deposits they have on hand. For example, if
loans exceed sources and the state does not control marketable goods and
materials, credit funds will be used to cover financial deficits or an
excessive number of long-term construction loans will be made (these loans
cannot supply marketable products in a short time), and then the phenomenon
of the supply of money in circulation exceeding the supply of goods and
materials will arise as a result of the new purchasing power derived from
these loans. As a result, commpdity prices rise and money is devaluated.
Does this mean credit inflation will certainly arise whenever banks make
loans in excess of the sources of these funds without a guarantee of goods
and materials? I do not think so. In my opinion, only when the volume of
credit expansion exceeds a certain limit does credit inflation occur. Last
year, a basic balance was maintained between revenue and expenditure and
between inflow and outflow of credit funds in our country. But there was
not a complete balance, so the possibility of credit inflation still exists.
We should never ignore this fact. In his government work report, Premier
Zhao Ziyang said: "We should keep fund raising under control and prevent
credit inflation. And the banks' role of accumulating, transferring and
controlling credit funds must be strengthened."
Currency inflation refers to an excessive amount of paper money circulating
in society--exceeding normal needs in commodity exchange and labor payment,
and followed by devaluation. One of the inevitable results of inflation is
a rise in commodity prices. But not all price rises occur because of infla-
tion. China has incurred financial deficits for several years running. The
supply of money has grown faster than the demand for money in circulation.
An excess of banknotes exists in the market. Commodity prices have risen,
but only by a small margin, because ours is a planned economy. 1) Purchasing
prices of grain and other agricultural products are higher than their selling
prices, and the difference is subsidized by the state. Thus, prices of
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people's daily necessities are basically stable and the stability of people's
livelihood is guaranteed. 2) Generally, there have been no major price rises
throughout the country, but have been some price increases and decreases.
The extent of a price rise is limited by the state planning mechanism and
administrative intervention. The workers' standard of living might be
affected by a price rise. However, their standard of living is not only
based on the level of prices but also on the level of their wages. In China,
owing to adjustment of wages, issuance of bonuses, increase in employment and
other factors in recent years, the growth of the-per capita wage income of
workers' families is higher than the growth of commodity prices.
Since 1979, we have raised the prices of agricultural and sideline products
in a planned way. This was done in order to achieve price parity between
industrial and agricultural products. It was not prompted by an excess of
circulating money. These price adjustments are beneficial to rapidly
recovering and developing agricultural production and to improving supply to
urban residents and is of positive significance. Therefore, while observing
and determining whether the amount of money circulating in market is reason-
able, it is unadvisable to only examine the increase and decrease in the
volume of money supply. This should be concretely analyzed by linking pro-
duction with circulation.
Credit inflation is closely related to currency inflation. In Western capi-
talist countries, currency circulation includes two aspects--cash circula-
tion and noncash settlements. There are no limits to the settlements of
capital by account transfer or cash payments. So, credit inflation and cur-
rency inflation are, in fact, one and the same. Currency circulation in
China only refers to cash circulation, and does not include noncash settle-
ments. However, because money is put into circulation through credit pro-
cedures, the balance between the amount of cash put into or withdrawn from
circulation depends on the balance between the inflow and outflow of credit
funds. On a nationwide level, withdrawal of money from circulation means
that the credit inflow volume is larger than the credit outflow volume; put-
ting money into circulation means that the credit outflow volume is larger
than the credit inflow volume. The balance of inflow and outflow of credit
coincides with the balance of inflow and outflow of cash. In the past,
owing to the interlocking of finance, credit and cash, capital construction
pressed for finance and finance pressed for credits, so deficits in credit
funds were covered by increasing the amount of currency issued. Under this
system of fund management, if credit inflation occurs, currency inflation
will certainly follow. But credit inflation and currency inflation are two
different concepts. On the credit balance sheet, the volume of credits is
equal to the volume of deposits plus the volume of currency issued. The
increase and decrease in the volume of credits reflects the increase and
decrease in the volume of deposits and the withdrawing and depositing of
cash. Therefore, credit inflation might simultaneously take'the forms of
account transfers and cash payments, while currency inflation generally
refers to an excessive increase in cash payments. In order to prevent credit
inflation, the relationship between credit and currency should be properly
handled, and the comprehensive balance of finance, credit, materials and
foreign exchange should be maintained.
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SEVERAL QUESTIONS WHICH CALL FOR ATTENTION IN LITERARY AND ART CREATION AT
PRESENT
Beijing RED FLAG in Chinese No 7, 1 Apr 82 pp 29-31, 43
[Article by Wen Hua [5113 6895]]
[Text] Socialist literature and art must be improved and developed through
a continuous process of practice and summing up of experience. In recent
years, literary and artistic creation has flourished, bringing about a
situation that has rarely been seen since the founding of the PRC. In the
second half of last year, comrades in literature and art circles began to
study and implement the spirit of the Central Committee's forum on ques-
tions on the ideological front, earnestly carrying out criticism and self-
criticism in a comradely and realistic manner. In addition to affirming the
achievements and mainstream of this development in literature and art, on
the question of overcoming and preventing the mistaken tendencies of bour-
geois liberalization, they reached a basically unanimous understanding,
exchanged ideas and strengthened unity, creating conditions that are con-
ducive to the further flourishing and healthy development of literature and
art.
These studies and discussions have played an important role in the develop-
ment of our country's socialist literature and art. One of the most out-
standing results is the fact that we have had to draw a clear distinction
between right and wrong on certain basic questions of literary and artistic
creation.
1. A number of literature and art works describing social life during the
"Great Cultural Revolution" have appeared since the smashing of the "gang of
four." These works have played a positive role in understanding this
internal disorder that brought serious calamity to the party, the state and
the people of all nationalities and in understanding the essence of the Lin
Biao and Jiang Qing counterrevolutionary cliques. However, an outstanding
problem that exists in a few of these works is that they are unable to draw
a clear distinction between, on the one hand, Lin Biao and the "gang of
four," and on the other hand, the party, the state and the socialist system.
As a result, objectively they have varying degrees of bad effects on the
party, the people's regime, and the socialist system.
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It should be noted that, although Lin Biao and the "gang of four" seized a
considerable amount of the state's and party's power during the "Great
Cultural Revolution" and invariably waved the banner of the party and social-
ism to justify their perverse acts, they were in fact a diseased growth on
the body of the party and the socialist system. Lin Biao and the "gang of
four,"along with the serious calamity they brought on the people, were
certainly not products of the party and the socialist system itself. On the
contrary, they were the enemies of the party and socialist system of the
working class. While they may have prevailed for a while, in the end they
did not and could not escape the punishment of history. Once the victory
against them had been achieved, it was inevitable that our party and social-
ist system should move rapidly into a new historical period. This is the
true face of Chinese history during and after the "Great Cultural Revolution"
and is also something that our party, and the people of all nationalities,
including workers in literature and art, have come to understand through the
summing up of the experiences of this historical period. As the "Resolution
on Certain Questions in the History of Our Party Since the Founding of the
PRC" pointed out, "Although we suffered from sabotage by the counterrevolu-
tionary cliques during the 'Cultural Revolution,' we won out over them in the
end. The party, the people's political power, the people's army and Chinese
society on the whole remained unchanged in nature." These highly complex
social and historical phenomena occurred under very special conditions and
some authors have failed in their efforts at artistic condensation and judg-
ment, believing that the "Great Cultural Revolution" represented 10 years of
fascist dictatorship, during which time the state's political power was com-
pletely in the hands of the "gang of four." This mistaken understanding has
meant that their works paint a very dark picture of the social reality during
that time, giving no hint of either the reactionary nature of the Lin Biao
and Jiang Qing counterrevolutionary cliques or the historical trend which was
to result in their eventual downfall and offering no insight into either the
struggle of the party and the people of all nationalities or the inevitability
of their final victory. The inability to grasp the true nature of society
in a correct and comprehensive manner has prevented a small number of authors
and artists from correctly understanding and expressing the most profound and
inherent truth of the age that "our people are a great people and that our
party and socialist system have enormous vitality." It seems that a summing
up of both the positive and negative experiences and lessons of literary and
artistic creation and a deep study and appreciation of the "resolution's"
scientific analysis of the "Great Cultural Revolution" will contribute sig-
nificantly to the improvement of artistic and ideological standards in this
type of creative activity.
2. Practice has proved that pursuit of special privileges and bureaucratism
are, in the entire ranks of revolutionary cadres, only partial and temporary
phenomena which can certainly be overcome by the forces of the party and the
people's regime themselves. In observing life, selecting material, refining
plots and portraying characters, writers and artists should take a stand
that conforms to the basic interests of the party and the people. Moreover,
through their own creative work they should be able to playa positive role
in improving party work style and work and in promoting socialist moderniza-
tion. However, an important point that needs to be put forward here is that
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it is essential to clearly distinguish the fundamental differences between
the old and new social systems and between the party's cadre force and the
very small number of degenerates and speculators who have worked their way
into it. The socialist system is incompatible with the phenomena of pursuit
of special privileges and bureaucratism. Our cadres are certainly not
bureaucrats of the old system; they are the people's servants and communists
who devote their all to the cause of liberating the whole of mankind. Other-
wise, there could be no new China in which the people are masters, and there
could be no victory for socialism in China. It is absolutely essential to
mercilessly expose the small number of degenerate elements and speculators.
However, there is no basis at all for maliciously uglifying and launching
unbridled attacks on good comrades who have shortcomings or going so far as
to paint a dark picture of the entire party and cadre rank. There is a
school of thought which believes that those within the party have come to
form a "privileged class"; maintaining that only artists have a "conscience"
and that politicians have no "conscience." No matter what an individual
author's motives may be, any work which is written on the basis of such
thinking will be basically contrary to historical facts. Our party and the
people of all nationalities earnestly hope that writers and artists will be
able to shift the focus of their creative activities toward the ongoing
struggle, to build a new life. To say that this represents a ban or a dis-
guised ban on any writing dealing with privilege and bureaucratism reflects
a serious misunderstanding of the situation. There is still a dark side to
our life and not a single day passes without the party and the people having
to struggle against these dark aspects, including privilege and bureaucrat-
ism. The task put forward by the Central Committee of struggling against
corruption is further proof of this. Two years ago, Comrade Hu Yaobang's
"speech at the playwright forum" clearly pointed out that "our party has
already resolved to solve the problems of bureaucratism and privilege and
is currently adopting measures to this end. The party dearly hopes that
comrades in literary and art circles will join us in adopting the correct
policy, using literary and artistic creation to expose and overcome bureau-
cratism and privilege seeking." This is both the sacred right and the
unshirkable responsibility of socialist artists and writers. Faced with the
various problems for which the party and people show concern, our writers
and artists must not close their eyes to any of the backward, negative and
ugly phenomena that confront them. Rather than.remaining silent, they
should bring the indispensable critical functions of socialist literature and
art into play in a real and effective manner. In fact, in all areas of
artistic creation--novels, films, plays and poetry--there have been a con-
siderable number of successful works which have had the correct ideological
viewpoint, shown great artistic creativity and adopted the correct method in
exposing and opposing all types of unhealthy trends, including privilege-
seeking and bureaucratism. The party and the people have, of course, shown
great interest in and welcomed these works.
3. Since the smashing of the "gang of four," we have sharply criticized all
kinds of expressions of the personality cult in the literature and art field.
Take the ideological stand of Marxism, for example. A number of writers and
artists have used the form of literature and art. to expose the complex,
multifaceted political and historical causes of "overconcentration'of party
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power in the individual, and the growth of autocracy in the party and of
personality cults," to help people to draw the necessary lessons. This is
very significant. But of course, not all works which deal with this subject
and theme have the correct stand, viewpoint and method, nor do they all
expressea rigorous creative attitude and a sense of revolutionary responsi-
bility. Certain works take a one-sided and vulgar view of the problem and
use insinuations and satire to describe the proletarian revolutionary
leaders', especially Comrade Mao Zedong, as symbolizing "monarchical power"
and "divine rights." This leads to distortions of history. "Comrade Mao
Zedong was a great Marxist and a great proletarian revolutionary, strategist
and theorist. It is true that he made gross mistakes during the 'Great
Cultural Revolution.' But, if we judge his activities as a whole, his con-
tributions to the Chinese revolution far outweigh his mistakes. His merits
are primary and his errors secondary. He rendered indelible meritorious
service in founding and building up our party and the Chinese people's
Liberation Army, in achieving victory in the cause of liberation of the
Chinese people, in founding the People's Republic of China and in advancing
our socialist cause. He made major contributions to the liberation of the
oppressed nations of the world and to the progress of mankind." Every
writer and artist who seeks to express this solemn and important theme and
subject should use the "resolution's" scientific and factual assessment of
Comrade Mao Zedong's historical position as an ideological guide. Several
writers have recently tried to sum up lessons and experience in this area
in the light of their own creative practice. This has been of enlightening
significance in the question of how our literary and artistic creation
should solve the relationship between opposition to personality cults, on
the one hand, and correct treatment of revolutionary leaders, on the other.
4. In the past there was a simple tendency among our creators of literature
and art to completely ascribe a person's social nature to his class nature.
This tendency has been criticized and has started to be corrected in practice.
In recent years bringing order out of chaos on the theoretical level has led
to the appearance of a group of successful works guided by the Marxist world
outlook which express concretely the richness and complexity of human
society. However, a number of works preaching abstract human nature have
also appeared. This is mainly expressed in the following ways: 1) observing
life and history from the viewpoint of abstract human nature and defining
the struggle between the masses under the Communist Party's leadership and
the "gang of four" as a struggle between human nature and antihuman or animal
nature; 2) making vigorous efforts to seek beautiful human nature in class
enemies or. reactionaries, blurring the distinction between the enemy and
ourselves and even making "human nature" and "human feeling" an excuse for
defection to the enemy, treason and other treacherous acts; 3) preaching that
abstract human nature is the lever of history and the motive force by which
mankind can hold together and society can develop; 4) holding that the revo-
lutionary war and land reform waged under party leadership and even the
socialist system itself depress and ruin human nature; 5) in theoretical
circles, confusing a person's nature with his natural properties and abili-
ties. As a result of this, people have begun to believe that "writing about
emotion means writing about love, and writing about love means writing about'
sex." Such a viewpoint and tendency has, in reality, only opened the way
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for vulgar works advocating "sexual emancipation" and promising sensual
excitement. There is an urgent need for further analysis, study and criti-
cism of such a viewpoint and tendency.
5. Serving the masses and socialism is the fundamental orientation of our
literature and art. The reason that literary and art creation has been able
to achieve such outstanding results and to win the support and praise of the
broad masses of the people in recent years is that, through the accurate
portrayal of people's lives, this creation has expressed the thinking, the
emotions, the aspirations and the demands of the people. Serving the people
means regarding the people as an entity and as a decisive factor stimulating
the advance of history, and means serving the people's fundamental interests
and desires. Hence we certainly cannot separate serving the people from
party leadership and the socialist system, nor can we set them against each
other. However, certain literature and art workers claim to be the people's
spokesmen on the one hand and adopt a posture of opposing "the politics of
government" and "official politics" on the other. There are others who
announce that they will stand on the side of the people whenever any con-
flict emerges between the party and the people. However, it can be said with
certainty that any attempts to drive a wedge between the party and the
people or any attempt by the so-called representatives of the people to
deviate from the party and the socialist system will inevitably come to
naught. We can also say with certainty that the people have no need for such
representatives. The ideological sentiments expressed in the works of those
writers who profess to "stand resolutely on the side of the people" are
invariably those of individualism and anarchism. The people openly decided
long ago whether such ideological sentiments are beneficial or damaging.
There are also some writers who regard "box-office value" as the sole
criterion for judging whether the masses are being served well or badly. In
fact they are just catering to and satisfying vulgar and backward emotions
and interests not yet overcome by a part of the masses. This is quite differ-
ent from truly serving the people. Comrade Mao Zedong pointed out 40 years
ago that, "undertakings which truly serve the masses of people are now cer-
tainly under the leadership of the proletariat." History has borne witness
to the truthfulness of this judgment. Only those writers and artists who
uphold the four basic principles will ever become true representatives of the
people's interests and will ever be able to create good works that suit the
basic interests of the broad masses of the people.
6. In literature and art creation, reflecting the essence of life should be
the meaning of the task "writing about the truth." So-called artistic truth,
however, does not refer to the simple copying of the phenomena of life, but
to using living artistic images to expose the inherent connections and
objective trends that exist in and. between objects. In literature and art
theory and practice, some people set "writing about truth" against "writing
about the essence" and confuse "writing about the essence" with embellishing
life and advocating "hiding the truth and deceiving people." This both vio-
lates the Marxist theory of cognition and also belittles and twists the
truth of literature and art. Just as the affirmation of simple facts cannot
be termed "truth," the naturalistic portrayal of the daily phenomena of life
cannot be called "artistic truth." Artistic truth should be the reproduction
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of the teal essence of life. The most essential things, however, are always
concealed by the superficial phenomena of daily life. Therefore, in order to
achieve artistic truth one must explore and uncover the details and true
meaning of life and condense them artistically. If one is incapable of
seeing the "deep currents" of life and notices only the froth on the surface
and the dress, and if one does no more than list life's phenomena, exag-
gerating catastrophic scenes and displaying only ugly phenomena, this will
not only distort the true face of life, confuse people's understanding and
create bad social effects but will eventually also bring into question the
artistic content of the things described.
Our socialist literature and art are developing healthily. We firmly believe
that so long as efforts are made to study, and regular attention is paid to
guarding against and overcoming bourgeois liberalization and other unhealthy
trends, our socialist literature and art will certainly be able to achieve
even greater success. As a crude outline of several questions concerning
creation, this article provides reference material for further discussion
among comrades in literature and art circles. If there are places where
the wording or analysis is either imperfect or simply erroneous, we sin-
cerely hope that readers will offer their criticism.
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A BRIEF DISCUSSION OF THE THEORY OF 'NATURAL RIGHTS'
Beijing RED FLAG in Chinese No 7, 1 Apr 82 pp 32-36
[Article by Gu Chunde [6253 2504 1795]]
[Text] Not long ago, the theory of "natural rights" established by the bour-
geois thinkers became one of the most important "theoretical" bases of the
bourgeois liberal trends prevailing in Chinese society. Therefore, it is
absolutely necessary to conscientiously observe and study the theory of
"natural rights," expound the historical process of its emergence, develop-
ment and progressive role, and point out its hypocritical and limited nature
and its class essence.
The theory of "natural rights" was a product of historical development. It
sprouted during the Renaissance in Europe. The 14th-and 15th centuries
marked the darkest period of feudal and autocratic rule in Europe. The
feudal production relations severely hampered the development of the capi-
talist economy, and the feudal lords and churches brutally exploited the
broad masses of serfs. The feudal state rule and the shackles of the church
were unprecedentedly strengthened and class contradictions became increas-
ingly acute. Under the trammels of the feudal production relations and the
heavy oppression of the feudal hierarchy and church privileges, the oppres-
sed classes were not treated as human beings. In particular, the bourgeoisie,
which had emerged, did not possess any human rights. Those who were the
representatives of commodities and currency lacked the freedom of carrying
out commodity exchange and circulation, those who amassed enormous wealth
were not allowed to enjoy comforts, and the masters of science and tech-
nology were brutally ruined. Hence, humanity, human rights, freedom and the
emancipation of individual character naturally became the basic demands of
the bourgeoisie. A fierce struggle between the bourgeoisie, feudal class and
churches occurred in the ideological field. The Renaissance in Europe,
which started in the 14th century and reached a high tide in the 15th cen-
tury, was a concentrated manifestation of this struggle. Some early bourgeois
thinkers ruthlessly attacked and repudiated Roman Catholicism and its deca-
dent feudal ideology comprising mainly scholasticism and theology. They
began to express their views on the rights of individuals from the angles of
the reason, dignity and happiness of man. The ideological "natural rights"
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had already murkily developed, although they were not explicit. They ushered
in the dawn of capitalism.
The theory of "natural rights" was formally established and developed during
the period of bourgeois enlightenment in the 17th and 18th centuries. Those
who initiated the theory included Hugo Grotius of Holland, John Locke of
England and Jean-Jacques Rousseau of France. Proceeding from the rationality
of mankind, they put forth for the first time the idea that the rights of
individual freedom, individual happiness, acquisition of property and self-
defensewere innate and inborn in mankind, which even God could not deny, to
counter feudal autocracy, feudal hierarchy and the theological concept that
"power is granted by God." Grotius said that mankind was entitled to
"natural rights." According to his interpretation, the contents of such
"natural rights" included "life, freedom and property." Rousseau stressed
that "every human being is born free and equal." They maintained that
feudal rulers violated and sabotaged these rights of man and that people had
the right to overthrow the feudal rule. According to inferences and hypo-
theses made by bourgeois thinkers, the so-called "natural rights" were
nothing but basic rights enjoyed by people as human beings, that is, the
rights of man. Their main contents included the right of existence, the
right of freedom, the right of equality, the right of property, the right
of self-defense, the right of resistance, and so forth. These rights are
natural, eternal, universal, untransferable and inalienable and would never
change regardless of time, place, nationality, background or environment.
They came into being prior to the establishment of the state and law, or even
the existence of mankind. The state and law could neither fix nor change
them. This was the initial meaning of the theory of "natural rights."
The theory of "natural rights" reflected the characteristics of the capital-
ist production relations and represented the interests and demands of the
bourgeoisie. Therefore, once it arose, it was accepted and welcomed by the
bourgeoisie and became the theoretical basis of the bourgeoisie for repudi-
ating the old order of feudalism. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the
bourgeois revolution erupted in-England, America and France. "Natural
rights" became the basic contents of the political program of the revolu-
tions. The "Declaration of Independence" of the United States and the
"Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen" of France, issued in
1776 and 1789 respectively, were permeated with the principle, spirit and
contents of the theory of "natural rights." The "Declaration of Independence"
explicitly says: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are
created equal, that they are endowed by their 'creator' with certain inalien-
able rights, and that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness." The "Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen"
explicitly proclaimed: "All men are born free and equal in rights," "The
purpose of any political integration is to preserve the natural and unshak-
able rights of man. These are rights of liberty, property, safety and
resistance to oppression." The "declaration" particularly emphasized:
"Property is a sacred and inviolable right." After the victory of the French
bourgeois revolution, a number of constitutions were drawn up. Each consti-
tution continued to affirm the principle of "natural rights" and stated that
the principle of the "Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen"
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should be "scrupulously observed." At present, the basic rights of man and
citizens have been stipulated in the constitutions of a number of bourgeois
countries in the world. Hence, "natural rights" not only originated from
natural law, but were also recognized and affirmed by substantive law. At
that time, the implications and contents of "natural rights" were more
extensive than when they were first established, because they actually
included various basic rights of, the citizen.
It is obvious that the theory of "natural rights" has become not only an
important content of the bourgeois democratic system, but also its theoreti-
cal basis and the dogma which the bourgeoisie believes. In spite of the fact
that the specific implications and contents might change in this way or that,
its bourgeois character will never change.
The theory of "natural rights" in opposition to theocracy and monarchical
power did play a fairly great progressive role in opposing the rule of
feudal autocracy. However, we should realize that although the theory of
"natural rights" flaunted the banner of the interests of common people, it
actually represented and reflected the rights and interests of the bour-
geoisie. Marx pointed out sharply that "natural rights" were actually the
privileges of the bourgeoisie because their nucleus was the right of
property. In a capitalist society, such rights can only be monopolized by
the owners of capital. Marx also profoundly stressed: "Equally exploiting
labor force is the main human right of capital." ("Collected Works of Marx
and Engels," Vol 23, p 324) He affirmed that the relations of exploitation
between capitalists and laborers, safeguarding the bourgeois rights of
private property, and ensuring the capitalists' rights of freedom in trade
and exploitation were the class essence of the theory of "natural rights."
Furthermore, the theory of "natural rights" is an out-and-out bourgeois
idealist conception of history because, first of all, this theory regards
human rights as "natural." This has distorted the historical cause for the
formation of human rights. The Marxist theory of the state and legal
theories tells us that the so-called rights refer to certain rights and
interests which law bestows on people and that those who enjoy these rights
are entitled to act in a certain way and demand that other people react
accordingly. Rights and duties complement each other and are closely
related. "There are no rights without duties nor duties without rights."
("Selected Works of Marx and Engels," Vol 2, p 137) They emerge, exist and
develop simultaneously. Rights are neither innate nor exist naturally, nor
are they created or bestowed by God. The establishment of rights is closely
connected with the formation of class, state and law. Before the occurrence
of class, state and law, no such thing as the exploitation of man by man
could or would exist in primitive society. Therefore, the situation of some
people having rights and some others not having rights could never occur.
Just as Engels said: "Within a clan system, there was no difference between
rights and duties." ("Collected Works of Marx and Engels," Vol 21, p 180)
It was only after the occurrence of the exploiting and exploited classes and
the formation of state and law that rights and duties were differentiated and
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set against each other. "It seems that all rights have been bestowed upon
a class and that all duties pushed on another class." (ibid., p 202) It is
obvious that no human rights are innate, but are all recognized, stipulated
and endowed by the state and law.
Moreover, owing to the fact that the theory of "natural rights" regards
human rights as "eternal" and "fixed and unalterable," it negates the
objective law of the development and changes of the rights of man. Dialec-
tical materialists maintain that all things in the world are constantly on
the move, developing and changing. Nothing is eternal, fixed, unalterable
or absolutely static. Rights as social phenomena are no exception. It is
absolutely impossible for "eternal" and "fixed and unalterable" rights to
exist. Man is neither isolated nor unrestrained. Man is a summation of
social relationships. In a class society, any man as a member of a class
finds himself in such a social relationship. The position of "man" in the
social relationship is constantly changing. In the meantime, the nature,
contents and scope of rights are also continuously developing and changing.
The development and changes of rights are determined by economic conditions
and the nature of the social system. Rights of a different nature will
occur under different economic conditions and sociopolitical systems. At
the same time, the scope and contents of rights of the same social nature
will also change. "Natural rights" are rights of a capitalist nature, and
their contents and scope are not the same in different stages of capitalist
development. Negating the changes and development of the contents and scope
of rights is a metaphysical view. Rights belong to the category of super-
structure, and their existence and development cannot be separated from or
exceed the material conditions and scientific and cultural level of the
society. Just as Marx pointed out, "Rights can never exceed the economic
structure of the society or the cultural development of the society
restricted by the economic structure." ("Selected Works of Marx and Engels,"
Vol 3, p 12) If we talk about rights without taking into consideration the
nature of the political system or the economic conditions and scientific and
cultural level of the society, we will not only fail to truly bring to light
the objective laws governing the development of rights, but also obliterate
the class nature of rights and are. liable to lapse into the quagmire of
idealism. The stipulations of law on rights cannot be arbitrarily decided
by legislators, because economic and cultural conditions, class contradic-
tions and class struggle have to be taken into account. The exercise of
rights has to be guaranteed not only by a constitution and laws but also by
fundamental material conditions. If we only proclaim or stipulate certain
rights in a constitution and laws without reliable economic and cultural
conditions as a basis and guarantees to ensure their realization, all these
rights can only be empty phrases which cannot be realized.
Furthermore, the theory of "natural rights" regards the rights of man as
"absolute" and "unrestricted." Such a view distorts the characteristics and
attributes of the rights of man. Facts have proved that absolute and
unrestricted rights never occur. Even the founders of the theory of
"natural rights" could not deny this. Spinoza admitted that people's free-
dom of speech should not go beyond the limit of disturbing the tranquility
of society and harming the authority of the rulers. Montesquieu said more
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directly: "Political liberty does not mean that people can do as they
please," "Liberty means that people can only do what is permitted by law."
("On the Spirit of Law," Vol 1, p 154) While proclaiming "natural rights,"
the "Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen" also restricted
these rights, saying: "Liberty refers to all acts which do not harm other
people," "The enforcement of each individual's natural rights should be
confined within the limits that other members of the society can also enjoy
the same rights." All these expositions and stipulations show that rights
are neither absolute nor unrestricted. They always have strings attached
and restraints. In a capitalist society, rights are limited to the scope
of the interests of the bourgeoisie and the "scope permitted by the law" of
the bourgeoisie. They are not allowed to hamper the bourgeois rights of
property, rights of politics and ruling order.
Lastly, it is because of the fact that the theory of "natural rights"
regards the rights of man as "universal" that it conceals the class nature of
the theory. Since the establishment, existence and development of rights
are connected with class and they are bestowed by the state and law, they
cannot be "universal" and treat all classes equally without discrimination.
In a class society, "man" does not transcend classes and national boundaries,
but belongs to a certain class and nation. Any rights of man are rights of
class, which are characterized by a distinctive class nature. The theory of
"natural rights" replaces man belonging to a class with abstract "man" and
the class nature of rights with the "universality" of rights. All this fully
exposes the hypocrisy of this theory. In a capitalist society, rights are
based on the antithesis between classes. The bourgeois state and law pro-
tect the rights of the bourgeoisie, and restrict and expropriate the rights
of the proletariat. The rights of man and other democratic rights stipulated
in the constitutions and laws of bourgeois states are true for the bourgeoisie
and can be realized. The reasons are simple. It is because the bourgeoisie
controls state power, wields the power for formulating and enforcing the law
and possesses the means of production and all material conditions for exer-
cising democratic rights. It relies on the state power to maintain its
property relationships and rule of capital. Owing to the fact that the pro-
letariat and the laboring masses do not possess any of these things, to them
rights stipulated in laws are no more than empty talk which cannot be
realized. The reason why bourgeois countries contain such high-sounding
stipulations in their constitutions and laws is to deceive the proletariat
and the laboring masses, mitigate the contradictions between the proletariat.
and the bourgeoisie and do some window dressing for the democracy and freedom
of bourgeois nations. In the final analysis, their purpose in doing so is to
maintain the reactionary rule of capitalism. Right from the first day when
the bourgeoisie made its promise to the proletariat and the laboring masses,
it never intended to make good this promise. On the contrary, it tried by
hook or by crook to restrain and prevent the proletariat and the laboring
masses from exercising their rights of democracy and freedom by utilizing its
constitutions and laws. More and more such restrictions have been imposed.
For example, the present U.S. federal law explicitly stipulates that nobody
is allowed to use freedom of speech and of the press to "harass society"
and propagate "violent revolution." With regard to the right to vote, many
restrictions have been imposed, including the level of education, property
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conditions, length of residence, and so forth. The government can at any
time use administrative orders to deprive the laboring people of their basic
rights.' Under such circumstances, it is difficult for the proletariat and
the laboring masses to exercise their democratic rights which will protect
their class interests, but also harm the interests of the bourgeoisie.
Therefore, while using the rights of democracy and freedom and various civil
rights stipulated in the constitutions and laws of the bourgeois countries
to carry out "legal" struggle against the bourgeoisie and strive for the
improvement of their political status and living conditions, the proletariat
and the laboring masses should not be misled by the false appearances of
bourgeois democracy and freedom. They should constantly raise their class
consciousness and carry out their struggle to overthrow the reactionary rule
of the bourgeoisie.
In a word, the rights of man are not "natural," but conferred and stipulated
by the state and laws; the rights of man are not universal, but characterized
by distinct class nature; the rights of man are not abstract,.but specific;
the rights of man are not absolute, but restricted by laws and ethics; the
rights of man are not eternal, fixed and unchangeable, but their nature and
applicable scope change as man's role in the material productive conditions
and position are constantly changing. Different countries with different
social systems have rights of different class characters. This is the basic
viewpoint of Marxism-Leninism on the rights of man, which is sharply antago-
nostic to the theory of the "natural rights" of the bourgeoisie.
It is true that Marxists do not deny human rights altogether, but adopt an
attitude of historically and specifically analyzing them. In the present-
day world, "human rights" have become a popular slogan which is widely
accepted by various countries and a tool for carrying out modern inter-
national and political struggle. With the progress of history, the concept
of human rights has also undergone a new development. For example, in the
past 10 or 20 years, the newly emerging countries--the Third World--have put
forth a series of rights upholding national self-determination, defending the
independence and sovereignty of nations, developing the national economy,
freely dealing with various countries' wealth and natural resources, opposing
foreign aggression, oppression and plunder, and demanding that a rational
and new order based on the equality of various nations be established in
international economic relations. All this has infused new contents into
the concept of human rights. It has occurred as the opposite of imperialism,
colonialism, racism and hegemonism and marks an important development of the
traditional concept of human rights. This has further developed the concept
of human rights. Of course, we agree to such a progressive concept of human
rights and support the international struggle based on it.
In building socialist democracy, we should adopt an analytical and critical
attitude toward the traditional concept of human rights, which was smashed
by the emerging national and democratic movement as early as after World
War II. We should interpret human rights in a way which conforms with
Marxist principles. Moreover, we should use more scientific and truthful
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concepts--the rights of citizens--to expound our country's view on human
rights. However, some people appreciate the theory of "natural rights" as
a gem, saying that "man is born with the right to democracy and freedom" and
that "absolute freedom of thinking and speech should be guaranteed." Some
people even advocate that the bourgeois multiparty system and parliamentarism
and election system be introduced to socialist China. They believe that the
"socialist system is not as good as the capitalist system" and that "social-
ist democracy is inferior to bourgeois democracy." To them, Marxism-
Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought no longer works and what they do is seek help
from the bourgeois theory of "natural rights." The reason for the occur-
rence for this ideological trend is: During the 10 chaotic years, the Lin
Biao and Jiang Qing counterrevolutionary cliques sabotaged the socialist
democratic system and this ideological trend is a kind of historical punish-
ment. Apart from that, in recent years, some people have been influenced by
bourgeois ideology from abroad. Actually, the Chinese people had experience
of the theory of "natural rights" long ago. Early this century, when Marxism
had not yet been disseminated in China, Chinese bourgeois thinkers introduced
the theory of "natural rights" to China from Western countries as a "new
learning." They tried to use this theory to rescue old China, which was dark
and backward, and establish a bourgeois republic. What was the result?
Their efforts ended in failure. People who know a bit about modern Chinese
history have probably not forgotten this. The theory of "natural rights" did
not work in old China, let alone in the new period of socialism. If the
theory of "natural rights" is preached again, does that not mean a great
retrogression of history?
It is undeniable that there is room for improvement in our country's social-
ist superstructure and there are some shortcomings in certain aspects of our
state system. However, what strength should we rely on to eliminate these
defects? We should only rely on the strength of the socialist system and
the broad masses of people and the leadership of the Communist Party and the
guidance of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought, bring into full play the
role of socialist democracy and,improve the socialist legal system. We
should on no account seek help from the bourgeois theory of "natural rights."
Since the 3d Plenary Session of the 11th CCP Central Committee, the party and
government have adopted a series of effective measures and done a lot of work
to carry forward socialist democracy and improve the socialist legal system.
We have reexamined and redressed throughout the country a great number of
false charges, wrong sentences and frame-ups; implemented policies for cadres,
intellectuals and nationalities and other policies; and strengthened the work
of the people's congresses at all levels, established permanent organs for
the people's congresses at the provincial and county levels, and established
direct elections for people's deputies at and below the county level. We
have restored and improved staff members' representative assemblies and drawn
the masses to participate in state affairs, economic and cultural affairs and
the affairs of social development. We have carried out criticism and self-
criticism in the press and strengthened the masses' supervision over the
organs of the party and government and their working personnel. We have
strengthened legislative and judicial work and enacted a series of basic
laws, including criminal law,.law on criminal procedure, law on civil
procedure, law on economic contracts and so forth. Our country's legal
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system is being gradually improved. The execution of these measures has
guaranteed people's democracy and expanded their rights of being the masters
of their own affairs. In particular, the "Guiding Principles for Inner-
Party Political Life," adopted by the 6th Plenary Session of the 11th CCP
Central Committee, has stressed that our country "will gradually build a
highly democratic socialist political system" and that the building of the
state organs at all levels should be strengthened in accordance with the
principle of democratic centralism so that people's congresses at all levels
and their permanent organs will become authoritative organs of state power
of the people. We should gradually promote people's direct democracy in
basic-level organs of state power and social life and exert great efforts to
develop the laboring masses' democratic management in production. All this
incontrovertibly proves that only the socialist system can ensure the full
exercise of the people's various rights. It will not work and can only
become frivolous and fantastic talk if we deviate from socialist democracy
and the legal system and socialist modernization to talk about the problem
of human rights.
Our country's socialist democracy is being strengthened and developed. It.
is, in essence, far superior to bourgeois democracy. It ensures the
democracy of the majority of people to be the masters of their own affairs.
Socialist democracy is democracy in both name and reality. The idea that
"socialist democracy is not as good as bourgeois democracy" is a groundless
bias. We firmly believe that in the struggle of the people of the whole
country for building socialist material and spiritual civilization, our
country will continue to expand the people's democratic rights and establish
the most extensive and-beautiful socialist democracy of mankind.
CSO: 4004/30
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STRENGTHEN SOCIALIST EDUCATION IN THE COUNTRYSIDE
Beijing RED FLAG in Chinese No 7, 1 Apr 82 pp 37-40
[Article by Fan Kang [5400 1660]]
[Text] In the rural areas of our country, the implementation of the prin-
ciples and policies worked out since the 3d Plenary Session of the 11th CCP
Central Committee, and particularly the recent years of extensive practice
of the various forms of production responsibility system, has aroused the
enthusiasm of the masses of peasants; grain production and the diversified
economy have been rapidly revived and developed and the livelihood of the
overwhelming majority of the peasants has been improved in varying degrees.
This is a situation that has not been seen for many years. However, at the
same time we must see that this is just a beginning, the foundation has
still not quite been consolidated, and quite a few new contradictions and
new problems have surfaced. Therefore, it is imperative to continue to
exert arduous efforts, strengthen investigation and study, work in a down-
to-earth manner, and especially give more effective leadership to the
ideological position and do more extensive and thorough ideological and
political work among the broad peasant masses.
What is the basic task of the ideological and political work of the CCP in
the rural areas at present? Briefly, it is to persevere unremittingly in
carrying out socialist education among the peasant masses.
The vast numbers of peasants have consistently held an important position in
the Chinese revolution and construction and have made and are continuing to
make their unique important contributions. Since the founding of the PRC,
our party has adopted a series of correct policies and measures and led the
hundreds and millions of peasants in taking the socialist road. There is no
doubt that the broad peasant masses have a reservoir of enthusiasm for
socialism. Then does this mean that we need no longer carry out socialist
ideological education among the peasant masses? That is really not so.
China is a big country with a history of more than 2,000 years of feudalism.
The influence of the ideology and habits left over by the age-old mutually
separated individual economy is deep-rooted in the rural areas. At the same
time, because of the "leftist" mistakes committed in our guiding ideology in
the past, and particularly the sabotage carried out for years by the Lin Biao
and Jiang Qing counterrevolutionary cliques, egalitarianism, poverty, unitary
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system of the means of production and the single-product economy, excessively
rigid control, and so on, were regarded as the so-called essential properties
of socialism and the peasants were forced to accept them, thus bringing about
great confusion in people's minds. Over the past few years, in encountering
this state of affairs, our party has resolutely brought order out of chaos
and established the production responsibility system, a new form of operation
and management, in the light of the need for reviving and developing, produc-
tion. This is a great change in the countryside. Quite a few people have
failed to follow up ideologically, or they have misunderstandings, doubts and
misgivings in one respect or another, which can be summarized in incisive
questions: Is what is being practiced now aimed at practicing socialism?
Do we still need to practice socialism? Practice demands the party of the
working class to frequently give ideological and political education and
provide correct guidance to the peasants. The rural party committees at
various levels must frequently imbue the peasant.masses with correct but not
distorted socialist ideas (including the socialist road, socialist policies
and the future of socialism) with specific objects in mind and help them
more conscientiously continue to forge ahead along the path charted by the
3d Plenary Session of the 11th CCP Central Committee.
In the light of the actual situation at present, in carrying out socialist
education, we must concentrate on the following tasks:
First, extensively and thoroughly propagate the correctness, great signifi-
cance and socialist nature of the principles and policies of the CCP Central
Committee since its third plenary session.
The vast numbers of peasants all understand that the improvement of their
livelihood over the past few years is the product of the party's principles
and policies since the 3d Plenary Session of the 11th CCP Central Committee.
During the 10-year turmoil, there was a peasant in a rural area of north-
western Shandong Province who toiled all the year round without enough to
eat and wear. He sought divine advice and promises year after year, but
life for him still did not show the slightest improvement. The new policies
formulated by the 3d Plenary Session of the 11th CCP Central Committee,
especially after the implementation of the production responsibility system,
enabled his family to come into their own economically at a rapid pace and
to embark on the road to prosperity. After the autumn harvest last year,
seeing that their house was full of grain and cotton, his daughter-in-law
teased him: "Dad, are you still going to seek the advice and help of gods
this year?" The old man cheerfully answered: "Oh, no, no. We must
attribute all we have today only to the 3d Plenary Session of the 11th CCP
Central Committee!" Look, the old man in a remote district also knew that
his prosperous life was the result of the correct policies of the CCP. The
"leftist" rural policies practiced during the "Great Cultural Revolution"
brought about one result, and today's correct rural policies have produced
another result. Contrasting these two results, the peasants have a very
clear idea in their minds. We must firmly grasp this favorable opportunity
and adopt various vivid and vigorous as well as concrete and effective forms
to propagate the party's rural policies, and particular stress should be put
on the socialist nature of these series of policies so that the peasants can
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see through their own immediate interests the brilliant prospects of the
socialist collective economy and have a deeper love for socialism.
At present, because the remnants of "leftist" ideology are still playing a
role, some cadres of the communes and their subdivisions regard one or two
concrete forms of the production responsibility system (such as the system
of fixing output quotas for individual households and that of assigning the
households full responsibility for task completion) as the practice of
'dividing the fields and working alone and as retrogression to the old
society and oppose and obstruct them as a result. Owing to the ideology and
habits left over by the old society, some peasants consider the production
responsibility system as a practice of "everyone looking after himself" and
as nothing to do with socialism. Although these two kinds of erroneous
ideas vary to some degree, they all stem from the misunderstanding of our
policies. Our party's ideological work must have a definite object in view.
At present, efforts must be concentrated on eradicating these misunder-
standings. The overwhelming majority of the peasants are very happy about
the present policies, but at the same time, they are afraid that the poli-
cies might change at any time. So, some of them go to the entrance of their
villages to wait for newspapers every day. This idea of being afraid that
the present policies might change at any time is, of course, related to the
mistakes existing in our work on the one hand and is caused by the fact that
they have an insufficient understanding of the socialist nature of the
present policies, do not feel secure about the present policies and thus
lack the proper steadfastness on the other hand. We must clearly state that
the production responsibility system is only a change in the operation and
management of the socialist agricultural collective economy and it does not
touch on the system of collective ownership of the basic means of production.
Take, for example, the system of assigning to the households full responsi-
bility for task completion. It is a relationship of a contract between the
peasant households and the collective, a relationship which is based on the
system of public ownership of land. This system puts land, large-scale farm
machines and tools and water conservancy facilities under the unified admin-
istration and use of the collective, accepts state planning and guidance, has
certain public deductions, arranges the livelihood of the families of armymen
and martyrs, the households enjoying the "five guarantees" and the families
with material difficulties in a unified way, and in some cases it carries
out agricultural capital construction in a unified plan. So it is a compo-
nent part of the socialist agricultural collective economy rather than the
individual economy of small private ownership existing before cooperativiza-
tion. Along with the development of the productive forces, it will develop
and become a more perfect collective economy step by step. We must still
clearly state that our party and government will uphold that the road of
socialist collectivization, and that the system of public ownership of the
means of production such as land will not change for a long period of time
and that the implementation of the production responsibility system in the
agricultural collective economy will not change for a long period of time.
So, the peasants can set their minds at rest.
The rural grassroots party organizations generally attach importance to
carrying out ideological and political education among the peasants. The
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problem is that some localities regard this ideological and political educa-
tion only as a means of bringing a certain concrete policy into force (it is
necessary). They more often than not judge the case as it stands and
neglect to carry out such education on the higher plane of the whole social-
ist education. The purpose of any work we communists do is both to attain
the current concrete goal and to fundamentally enhance the socialist con-
sciousness of the masses. Putting one-sided emphasis on concrete work at
the expense of the big goal of educating the peasants in what is of funda-
mental importance is a tendency of routinism, which we must take care to
guard against and overcome.
Second, carry out the education of correctly handling the relations of the
state, the collective and the individual in a regular and sustained way.
In the rural collective economy, the relations of the state, the collective
and the individual are more distinctive than those in the national economy
and are more fully manifested in the various aspects of production and live-
lihood. This requires us to constantly pay attention to studying and
readjusting it. Practice has consistently put these problems before the
party's ideological and political work and has demanded that we adapt our-
selves to different conditions and adopt different forms to find correct
answers. The introduction of various forms of the production responsibility
system in the rural areas, and particularly the. form of fixing output quotas
for individual households and the form of assigning the households full
responsibility for task completion, has all the more made the correct under-
standing and handling of the relations of the state, the collective and the
individual become a fairly striking problem. Take, for example, the form of
assigning the households full responsibility for task completion. It raises
the formula: "Hand over the amount originally agreed upon to the state,
reserve the full amount for the collective and the rest is all one's own."
This is a formula for handling the relations among the three parties. There
is inevitably a struggle of different ideas in this respect. The other forms
of the production responsibility system put solutions to the problem of the
relations of the state, the collective and the individual in their own ways,
and there are also ideological contradictions of one kind or another in this
respect. This is not in the least strange. This is because putting prin-
ciples into effect invariably requires a complicated process and is usually
not as direct and smooth as one would wish. In addition, people's ideologi-
cal consciousness is not uniform and in this respect there is a distinction
between the advanced and the backward; in terms of people's vision, there is
a difference between the farsighted and the shortsighted. There is a lot of
work to do in unifying people's understanding. Therefore, we must conduct
ideological work in a thoroughgoing manner.
In order to educate and lead the vast numbers of peasants in correctly
handling the relations of the state, the collective and the individual, it'
is necessary to uphold the principle of simultaneously taking the interests
of the state, the collective and the individual into account and not to con-
centrate on one thing only. At present particular stress should be put on
the following tasks: 1) Take the planned economy as the dominant factor and
regulation by market mechanism as the supplementary factor. This, fundamental
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principle is also applicable to the countryside. Giving play to the deci-
sionmaking power of communes and their subdivisions must be carried out
under the state's unified planning. Going beyond the orbit of state plan-
ning will directly or indirectly infringe on the interests of the state.
That is entirely wrong. One of the important reasons for some localities
unrestrictedly expanding the area sown to tobacco and reducing pig breeding
is that the peasants do not pay proper attention to ensuring the fulfillment
of state plans. We must repeatedly emphasize to the peasants that the
economy can be reinvigorated only under the guidance of state planning.
It is wrong to impose excessively rigid control over everything, but any-
thing which should be carried out in a centralized way must be properly put
under unified administration. The peasants are only allowed to carry out
their activities within the bounds of state planning. This will be conducive
to the long-term interests of the peasants and the state can smoothly carry
out its construction as a result. Departing from the guidance of state plan-
ning to seek the development of the small collective and even that of the
individual will inevitably damage the interests of the entire people includ-
ing the collective and the individual. Naturally, it is essential not to
indulge in harmful directives, but correct state planning is absolutely
indispensable. Therefore, while implementing the production responsibility
system, it is imperative to strictly observe state planning, resolutely per-
form production contracts in full and not to violate them in any sense of. the
term. To ensure the interests of the state, it is essential to strictly act
according to the guidance of state planning and carry out the state purchases
and assigned quotas without fail. Correctly handling the relations of the
state, the collective and the individual must first find expression in this
respect. 2) At present, some peasants are not so enthusiastic about making
deductions to the collective and even refuse to fulfill their obligations.
It is obviously wrong for them to lump together the practice of some cadres
taking more than their share with collective deductions. The collective
deductions we have referred to here partially include various fields, such as
accumulation funds and public welfare funds. The necessary subsidies for
cadres constitute only a tiny amount of collective deductions. All this is
indispensable for consolidating the socialist collective economy. If the
socialist collective economy is fundamentally shaken, the whole interests of
the state will not be ensured and our personal interests will lose their
backing. Therefore, we must never set the interests of the individual
against those of the collective. The vast numbers of rural cadres assidu-
ously serve the people and a considerable number of them are so devoted to
public service as to forget their own interests. There does exist the
phenomenon in which a tiny number of cadres take more than their share. Our
party resolutely opposes this practice. It confuses right and wrong to
equate collective deductions with the practice of cadres taking more than
their share. Using opposition to the practice of cadres taking more than
their share as an excuse to refuse to provide deductions to the collective is
in fact the reflection of the selfish mentality of small production. People
with these erroneous ideas are expected to make amendments through education.
Concerning oneself with the interests of the collective and safeguarding
collective property are the basic requirements for the socialist collective
peasants. Particular attention should be put on this point. 3) At present,
a small section of peasants concentrate only on personal gains. Consciously
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or unconsciously, they seek one-sided development of themselves by trying to
separate the personal interests from the relations of the state, the collec-
tive and the individual, a relationship which is inseparable. Some of them
even harm the collective or use the pretext of boosting the interests of the
collective to fleece the state. This is a harmful tendency. We must adopt
effective measures to correct it rather than let it go unchecked. The pro-
duction'responsibility system is a means of socialist operation and manage-
ment. In both the system of fixing output quotas for individual households
and that of assigning the households full responsibility for task completion,
there are both unified administration, and contracting rather than exclusive
contracting. What is fundamental and plays a decisive role is the socialist
economy. This is a major premise which brooks no violation. It is inevitable
that differences will emerge, in that some commune members will become pros-
perous earlier and some later and that there will be differences in varying
degrees among commune members. People who have now become prosperous or
highly prosperous must enthusiastically help, on their own accord, those who
have material difficulties for the time being. They must only look after
themselves, still less infringe on the interests of. others and the state.
The relations of mutual aid in unity between the people is one of the
important indications of socialist society. Opposing selfishness and
encouraging the idea of doing everything for the country and the public are
precisely an important content of socialist education. We must consistently
pay close attention to it.
Third, carry out education in maintaining social public security and improving
social customs in a big way.
Over a period of time, in some places in the countryside there have been
various disputes and contradictions and a strained relationship among a sec-
tion of people. What brooks no neglect is that some phenomena of breaking
laws and violating discipline have developed. While rejoicing at the develop-
ment of production and the improvements of livelihood, the broad masses of
peasants feel anxious only about the worsening social public security. We
must not treat the voice of the masses with indifference. The rural basic
organizations must give full play to the role of political power inherent
in them and adopt effective measures in maintaining social public security.
Of course, it is first necessary to carry out education in a widespread way,
mobilize men and women, old and young in the countryside to bring the
superiority of socialism into play and to wage resolute struggle against the
crimes of a handful of people by relying on organized forces. In some
places, and particularly in some coastal rural areas, where there is no regard
for productive labor, some peasants engaged in speculation and profiteering
and even smuggling, thus committing economic crimes. We must oppose the
corrosive influence of bourgeois ideas and deal blows at all offenses against
the law, which endanger the socialist system.
With regard to the various conflicts of interests.among the peasant masses,
we must widely build socialist spiritual civilization through activities
such as the "rules and regulations for villagers" and "five-good families."
Everybody is encouraged to foster good ideology and good work style, such
as loving the country as one's own family, putting other people's interests
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ahead of one's own and helping each other in unity to build a new socialist
countryside. Some of our comrades more often that not have a one-track mind
and concentrate on one thing only when they begin to work. When they are
called on to grasp production, they exclusively concentrate on production.
They do not attach proper importance to the building of socialist spiritual
civilization. They little imagine that without the building of socialist
spiritual civilization, production will certainly suffer. Therefore, the
education in maintaining social public security and improving social customs
should also be taken as a consistent basic task of our party's ideological
work in the rural areas.
It cannot be denied that the introduction of the various forms of the pro-
duction responsibility system in the rural areas has caused some new prob-
lems, both in organizational forms and work methods, for the party's ideo-
logical and political work. Now, with regard to propaganda and education
work among the peasants, we must do it in a more thoroughgoing, solid and
practical way, with the aim of really seeking solutions to the various prob-
lems to which the peasants pay close attention and about which they have no
idea. Ideological and political work like this will be really welcomed by.
the peasant masses. In some places in the countryside, cadres of certain
production teams refused to take further part in collective affairs. Such
being the case, the commune members organized themselves spontaneously and
had "team activities" at a fixed time (say, a month or half a month) to keep
abreast of state affairs and study the teams' own affairs. Facts have proved
that the peasants concern themselves with state affairs and need ideological
and political work. The problem is that we must find a new method suited to
the new conditions. After substantially reducing the interference in economic
matters, the rural party branch committees must exert more energy and effort
on studying the ideological conditions of the peasant masses, studying the
party's principles and policies and carrying out ideological education among
the peasants in a way that suits the remedy to the case. After diverse forms
of the production responsibility system were introduced, we had more, rather
than fewer, backbone elements whom we could rely on. The basic party organi-
zations must establish various forms of relations with them and arouse them
to carry out vivid and vigorous socialist education among the peasant masses,
closely centered on the main subject of continuing to implement the party's
rural principles and policies and making further advances amid the already
very good rural situation and prospects. In carrying out socialist educa
tion among the peasants, it is first necessary to strengthen the party ranks
and rely on them in carrying out vivid and vigorous propaganda and education
work among the broad masses.
Our party has accumulated rich experiences in the mass work which the party
has carried out in the countryside for long years, the most important of
which is the pressing need to give play to the exemplary role of party mem-
bers and the vanguard role of rural youth. At present, some rural party
members ask the party branch committees for assignment of tasks to carry out
ideological work among fixed households of their own accord. With a sense
of pride rarely seen"for many years, some veteran party members who were
enthusiasts in the years of the land reform and are now already 50 or 60
years old contracted to contact and arouse large numbers of peasant
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households to help the poor become prosperous and to foster healthy prac-
tices and drive out unhealthy ones. They have done their work successfully.
By working independently, they have enhanced their ability and won the
respect of the masses. Young people invariably constitute a dynamic force.
They are highly energetic and full of vigor, and they are the ones least
influenced by old conventions. Party organizations must organize them
through the CYL and help them to give full play to their proper and great
role in carrying out socialist education and in building a new socialist
countryside. So long as the leading members of the rural grassroots party
organizations take the lead and closely rely on the two forces--the vast
numbers of party members and young people--and create various effective
methods in practice, rural ideological work will certainly be carried out in
a vivid and dramatic way and will bring about incalculable material results.
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CHANGE HABITS AND CUSTOMS AND MAKE THE ENVIRONMENT MORE BEAUTIFUL
Beijing RED FLAG in Chinese No 7, 1 Apr 82 pp 41-43
[Article by Yang Rupeng [2799 1172 7720]]
[Text] In carrying out courteous activities of the "five stresses and four
points of beauty," the leading comrades of the CCP Central Committee have
taken the lead and set good examples by participating in cleaning up and
public health activities as well as by planting trees. But some people
regarded these activities as a trifling matter and thought that it was
unnecessary for leading comrades to take the lead and mobilize the masses.
Are tree planting and public health activities important matters, and do
they have any social significance?.
The beautification program and public health activities are in the interest
of improving the health of the entire nation. An environment that is
covered with trees and shrubs, that is clean and beautiful, will help
people to get rid of dirt, diseases, pollution, noise, and certain miseries
and annoyances caused by natural calamities, and will improve people's
physical well-being and make them happy and vigorous. The influence of the
hygienic environment on the health of people is easy to understand. Marx
said that public health work was important because this work would "protect
the health and well-being of the labor force which is the basic source of
all value." ("Collected Works of Marx and Engels," Vol 26, p 159) Comrade
Mao Zedong also said that public health work was important because it was in
the interest of production, work and study and in the interest of transform-
ing the weak physiques of the Chinese people and making them healthy. This
is an important matter directly related to the physical condition of the
people, the strength or weakness of the country and the continuation of the
nation; it is also related to maintaining social material production and
spiritual production. Therefore, it is only natural that health be an
important aspect of spiritual civilization. Under the cruel exploitation
and suppression of the ruling classes before liberation, many of the urban
and rural areas in our country were dirty and disease-ridden, and the
people's physiques were very weak; the nation was called by some foreigners
the "sickman of Asia." Following the establishment of the PRC, and owing
to the concern of the party and the government and the efforts made by
various health departments and medical personnel, health and disease preven-
tion networks were set up at various levels and patriotic public health
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campaigns were.carried out in depth. As a result, the health of our people
has improved considerably, the average lifespan has increased, and the
hygienic conditions in both rural and urban areas have been drastically
improved. The great contributions of public health work in promoting the
health of people across the country would have been unimaginable in the
old China. But, at the same time, we must understand that it is a very
arduous task to create a clean and hygienic environment and change the
habits of paying no attention to health and courtesy. Therefore, it is
necessary for us to carry out the "five stresses and four points of beauty"
activities, carry out ideological education, and popularize knowledge about
health and science so that people will be aware of the significance of pay-
ing attention to hygiene and of the serious hazards of not doing so. People
must be mobilized to disseminate and persuade others to pay attention to
hygiene--coupled with necessary and strict punishment measures--so that the
good habit of "everyone is paying attention to hygiene, every household is
clean and everyone is active in preventing pollution" will gradually become
widespread, coupled with the building of a strong momentum of public opinion.
The masses must be mobilized to clean all places, improve hygienic condi-
tions in both rural and urban areas, and improve the hygienic environment
in big and medium-sized cities.
In the past, we did not do much work to publicize the importance of planting
trees for the health of the people, and the broad masses of people still do
not have a necessary understanding of its importance. Enormous scientific
research work and statistics on experiments have shown that forests and
trees keep the air fresh, improve the climate, prevent blowing dust and
lower noise pollution. Some trees, shrubs and flowers produce elements that
kill bacteria and thus prevent some diseases. Other trees are helpful in
detecting the extent of environmental pollution. Many areas of the world
where people are living longer lives are characterized by mountains and
rivers, and quiet and beautiful environments. To cover soil with green
plants is not only in the interest of people's health, but also beautifies
the environment; it is in the interest of the people that this work be
done in a big way.
The campaign for planting trees and paying attention to public health is of
great significance for the development of the national economy. When Lenin
referred to industrial production, he said that it was necessary "to make
labor conditions more healthy, to enable tens of millions of workers to
work in hazard-free areas by eliminating smoke, dust and mud and to quickly
transform the dirty and disgusting workshops into clean, bright and com-
fortable laboratories." ("Collected Works of Lenin," Vol 19, p 42) As we
know, men are the most important and active factors in the productive force.
To change the dirty and chaotic environment is in the interest of promoting
people's physical conditions and of improving work, labor and study effi-
ciency and is consequently in the interest of promoting the development of
productive force. Furthermore, modernized mass production depends on
equipment, instruments and meters and other advanced equipment with very
high precision and sensitivity. In order to ensure smooth operation of this
equipment and enable them to be used for the longest possible time, it is
necessary to carry out civilized production. Paying attention to hygienic
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conditions and keeping the environment clean and beautiful is an indispen-
sable condition and important part of such production.
Planting trees is very important in developing the national economy, and
this work must be particularly stressed at the present stage because it is
not only important but also urgent. Developed forestry is a criterion for
state wealth, national prosperity and social civilization. Forests are
valuable resources for the national economy because they provide us with
timber and various forestry sideline products, but what is more important
is that forests have a very important role of maintaining natural ecological
balance. They constitute a very important condition for ensuring high and
stable yields in agriculture and animal husbandry. In fact, forests'play
many roles in this respect. For example, they retain water resources,
weaken surface and underground currents, preserve soil and water, act as
windbreaks and sandbreaks, reduce pollution and partially regulate the
climate. Therefore, to plant trees and develop forestry is a basic aspect
of farm capital construction, a strategic measure in transforming nature,
and a great cause that will benefit present and future generations.
People's understanding of the role of forests gradually deepens with the
development of society and science. In ancient times, people were only
aware of forests from the angle of their direct interest, which meant that
forests provided them with timber and various forestry sideline products.
They understood very little or did not understand at all the indirect inter-
est they could get from forests. Following the development of agriculture,
animal husbandry and industry, people began to reclaim lands and herd their
animals in a way that damaged forests and to fell trees excessively. In
addition, forests have been damaged by wars, fires.and pests. As a result,
the acreage of forests has decreased and the supply of timber is decreasing,
and at the same time there have appeared natural calamities such as floods,
drought, winds, sand and environmental pollution. When Marx was referring
to the influence of the activities of mankind on the natural environment,
he said: "It is only men that leave their own imprint on nature. That is
because they have not only changed the position of plants and animals but
also changed the outlook and climate of the places where they are living."
("Collected Works of Marx," Vol 20, p 373) That is to say, on the one hand,
mankind has made increasing achievements in understanding and transforming
nature, but on the other hand, he has caused a series of environmental
problems. Therefore, "we must in no way become intoxicated with our vic-
tories over nature. Nature has taken its revenge on us for each of our
victories. There is no doubt that we achieve the anticipated results in the
first step of each victory, but the situation is always quite different in
the second and third steps. It is often the case that the initial results
are offset by unexpected influences." ("Selected Works of Marx and Engels,"
Vol 3, p 517) Engels pointed out that in the mid-19th century, the Russians
recklessly felled trees and caused serious consequences that "have impov-
erished the soil in many regions." ("Collected Works of Marx and Engels,"
Vol 22, p 457) In our country, the loess plateau along the middle reaches
of the Huanghe River was originally covered with forests and grasslands;
it was a zone with prosperous agriculture and animal husbandry and the cradle
of the Chinese people. The forests were later seriously damaged, which
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caused numerous calamities following big-scale construction undertaken by
various rulers in history, damage during various wars and reckless logging
of trees. In the contemporary era, the region has been subject to frequent
natural calamities such as floods and droughts, and the river now contains
more silt than any other river in the world. This problem is not just con-
fined to the Huanghe River. We have made certain achievements in forestry
construction over the past 3 decades and more since the founding of the PRC,
but because of the very weak forestry foundation and the interference of
the "leftist" guiding ideology, the situation of our forests is still
lagging behind and they are far from meeting the needs of the development
of the national economy as well as the people's livelihood. Our country is
still one of the countries in the world with very low forest coverage. In
addition, the distribution of our forests is not balanced, while many
regions are characterized by serious ecological imbalance and soil erosion
which have seriously affected the development of agriculture and animal
husbandry. To make our country green and restore and develop forests is a
very arduous and urgent strategic task of the whole nation. We must be
clearly aware of this situation, take active measures and respond to the
"Resolution on Unfolding an All-People Voluntary Tree-Planting Campaign"
passed by the 4th Plenary Session of the 5th NPC and contribute to making
our motherland green.
The tree-planting and hygiene campaign is a matter of changing habits and'
customs, and an important aspect of beautifying the environment and building
spiritual civilization is that this will help promote the development of the
political consciousness of the broad masses of people and form good social
practices. These benefits can be said to be the basic spirit for our waging
the tree-planting and hygiene campaign. Lenin once termed pernicious and
infectious diseases and typhus as "bad consequences of Russians' uncivilized-
ness, poverty and ignorance." ("Collected Works of Lenin," Vol 30, p 198)
He also pointed out that to eliminate these diseases and the louses that
spread them "is our first measure for civilization." (ibid., Vol 30, p 160)
Consequently, he personally signed the decision to allot fees for cleaning
works in Moscow and meticulously inspected the nationwide activities of
"hygienic environmental week" and advocated that "Moscow must set an example
in cleanliness." (ibid., Vol 35, p 528) Planting trees and paying attention
to hygiene is the common cause of hundreds of millions of people and such a
campaign can draw the broadest masses of people to participate. This
campaign cannot make achievements in a short time. Therefore, we must per-
sist in tirelessly carrying out ideological education, hard work and manage-
ment for years in succession. Comrade Hu Yaobang has pointed out that the
campaign is closely related to the spiritual outlook of the entire Chinese
people. To have done a good job in planting trees and paying attention to
hygiene means to have demonstrated our organization and discipline, and
this achievement represents our civilization, which arouses people's vigor.
The CCP Central Committee has highly valued the great political and economic
significance of the tree-planting and hygiene campaign and considered the
present national conditions and the ideological situation of the broad
masses of people, and consequently it calls for doing a good job in cleaning,
hygiene and tree planting to change the dirty environment as a breakthrough
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in building socialist spiritual civilization. It is not an easy job to
change the habits and customs of tens of millions of people and overcome
the difficulties that have accumulated for many years, nor can this work
be completed at a stroke. But the Chinese people have a good tradition of
paying attention to hygiene and planting trees, we have the powerful leader-
ship of the party and the superior socialist system, excellent national con-
ditions and industrious people. Therefore, as long as the party and govern-
ment organizations at all levels are able to step up their ideological and
organizational leadership, make overall arrangements, and mobilize the
masses and are persistent in carrying out their work in a down-to-earth way,
a clean and beautiful environment covered in green is sure to emerge in our
urban and rural areas.
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FALSE HISTORIOGRAPHY SERVING REGIONAL HEGEMONISM--COMMENTING ON SOME
FALLACIES IN THE HISTORIOGRAPHY OF VIETNAM
Beijing RED FLAG in Chinese No 7, 1 Apr 82 pp 44-48
[Article by Dai Kelai [2071 0668 0171] and Xu Yongzhang [6079 3057 3864]]
[Text] Ever since the unification of the northern and southern parts of
Vietnam, the Le Duan clique has been frenziedly pushing regional hegemonism
in a vain attempt to dominate Southeast Asia. It has published numerous
volumes of so-called historical works which, meeting the needs of its policy
of aggression, distort historical facts, confuse right and wrong, make
malicious remarks by innuendo and even go to the extent of openly spreading
slander. In Vietnam today, historiography has actually become an instrument
used by the Vietnamese authorities to push regional hegemonism.
A Fabricated "Van-Lang State"
To put Vietnam in a higher historical position, some Vietnamese historians
have put back the date of the ancient history of Vietnam to an even earlier
period. They assert that the Vietnamese "established the Van-Lang Society
with a unique Bronze Age culture 3,000 to 4,000 years ago and that the
Vietnamese nation was obviously extraordinarily strong." (Nguyen Linh and
others: "The Question of the Hung-Vuong Kings and Archaeology" carried in
Vietnam's HISTORICAL RESEARCH, March 1968, No 108, p 23) They even say that
in ancient Southeast Asia, "a representative culture stemmed from the ances-
tral home of the Vietnamese" and ancient Vietnam was "a unique center of
Southeast Asian culture." (Dang Nghiem Van: "The Course of Formation and
Development of the United Vietnamese Nation" carried in Vietnam's HISTORICAL
RESEARCH, March-April 1978, No 179, p 10) They also boasted that ancient
Vietnam "was an agricultural center of the world." (Pham Huy Thong: "Bronze
Drum" carried in Vietnam's SPECIAL ISSUE ON BRONZE DRUM, Vol 1, p 10) In
short, they seemed to say that everything Vietnamese was the "best" in
Southeast Asia so that Vietnam should naturally be the overlord of the
region.
Anyone with rudimentary historical knowledge knows that the authentic
recorded history of Vietnam could not possibly be dated back to earlier than
China's Qin dynasty. In 207 B.C., Zhao Tuo, a Qin official in charge of the
border area, founded a local independent state of Nanyue with the city of
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Guangzhou as its seat of government. He established Jiaozhi Prefecture in
the northern part of today's Vietnam and Jiuzhen Prefecture in the northern
part of today's central Vietnam.' This was the first Vietnamese political
power recorded in history. In the ancient history of Vietnam, the Nanyue
State was considered an orthodox governmental state and named the Trieu
(Zhao) dynasty, and Zhao Tuo was called the founding ruler of the state of
Vietnam. (Le Van Huu, a scholar specializing in ancient Vietnamese history,
said: "Emperor Vo of the Trieu dynasty opened up the land of Vietnam and
founded his empire there.... He?rendered immortal contributions to the
founding of an empire in Vietnam!" ("Complete History of Great Vietnam:
Supplement," Vol 2) He regarded Zhao Tuo as the founder of Vietnam. In
his "Binh Ngo Imperial Mandate," Nguyen Trai said: "Ever since our country
was founded by the Trieu, Dinh, Ly and Than families...." He regarded the
Trieu dynasty as the first political power of Vietnam. Neither of them
mentioned the "Van-Lang State.")
Not only foreign scholars studying Vietnamese history but also Vietnamese
historians doubt the existence of the "Van-Lang State." According to the
ancient history of Vietnam, the "Van-Lang State" existed for 2,622 years
from 2879 B.C. to 258 B.C., during which time 18 Hung-Vuong kings reigned.
Vietnamese bourgeois historian Tran Trong Kim pointed out: "Each of the
Hung-Vuong kings was on the throne for an average of about 150 years.
.Though they lived in ancient times, it was hardly possible that such a
great number of people would live such a long life." (Tran Trong Kim:
"General History of Vietnam," Vietnamese version, p 25) This remark alone
showed that the existence of the "Van-Lang State" was unbelievable. French
Sinologist Henri Maspero also doubted the "Van-Lang State." (H. Maspero:
"Van-Lang State," carried in "Collected Papers of French Institute of Far
East Ancient Studies," No 18) Dao Duy Anh and some other Vietnamese
historians shared his doubts. Dao Duy Anh said: "The Van-Lang State can
only be a fabrication." "We should not rigidly hold that the word 'quoc'
(state), being the area ruled by Hung-Vuong kings, meant a state in the
sense that it does today." (Dao Duy Anh: "King of An-Duong and the State
of Au-Lac," Hanoi, 1975, Vietnamese version, pp 37, 35)
What was especially absurd was that for the purpose of proving the existence
of the "Van-Lang State," some Vietnamese historians had the effrontery to say
that the "An (Yin) bandits" whom the "Van-Lang State" fought against were
troops sent by China's Yin dynasty to attack Vietnam. (Phan Huy Le and
others: "Several Decisive Strategic Battles in the History of the Viet-
namese Nation," Vietnamese version, p 10; see also "General History of
Vietnam," p 26) We may well imagine: The Yin dynasty was located in the
central plains of China. It was so far away from the "Van-Lang State" that
there were no relations whatsoever between the two. What caused a war
between them? Under the technical conditions at that time, how could the
Yin troops cross the Changjiang River and the mountain ranges and invade the
"Van-Lang State"? Who else besides the fabricators would believe in this
"invasion"?
Some Vietnamese historians not only went all out to collect myths and
legends to fabricate history, but also adopted a capricious, pragmatic
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attitude toward archaeological finds. For example, they repeatedly said that
the Dong-Son culture could "testify" to the existence of the "Van-Lang State."
However, the report on the findings of the Dong-Son culture revealed that
some copper coins of China's Han dynasty were among the relics unearthed at
Dong-Son. This revelation was a far cry from their wishful thinking. There-
fore, they arbitrarily repudiated the report under the pretext that "the
method of unearthing the relics was not scientific." This resort to decep-
tion was indeed appalling!
"National Hero" of Aggression and Expansion
Some Vietnamese historians wildly exaggerated the "military achievements" of
the Vietnamese feudal kings and generals in wars with foreign countries,
extolling them to the skies and making them more perfect and taller figures
than proletarian revolutionaries. An outstanding example is their extolling
of Ly Thuong Kiet. They said: "In Vietnamese history, Ly Thuong Kiet
proved himself a man of moral integrity and great ability.... Many people
were astonished by his achievements in the war against China's Song dynasty."
(Van Tan: "In Commemoration of the 900th Anniversary of the Victory of the
Battle of Nhu Nguyet Giang: Ly Thuong Kiet and the Cause of Defending and
Building the Country During the 11th Century," carried in Vietnam's
HISTORICAL RESEARCH, March-April:1977, No 2, p 7) "He was a devoted patriot
cherishing a strong desire for national independence. He was also an open-
hearted statesman and able militarist." They described Ly Thuong Kiet's
"war of resistance against foreign aggression" as "a great, earthshaking
war of resistance with many unique characteristics in the Vietnamese history
of national defense over the past 4,000 years." They even praised a poem by
Ly Thuong Kiet as the "first declaration of independence of the Vietnamese
nation." ("Several Decisive Strategic Battles in the History of the Viet-
namese Nation")
Ly Thuong Kiet was prime minister during the reign of Emperor Nhan-Ton of the
Ly dynasty in Vietnam. The Ly dynasty was a rather powerful period in
Vietnamese history, whereas the contemporary Song dynasty in China was a
period of weakness in Chinese history. The Song dynasty was engaged in
internal struggles against the Liao and Jin local governments of minority
nationalities in the north and against the Xixia local government in the
northwest. Being unable to handle affairs in the south, it adopted an
"appeasement" policy toward the Vietnamese Ly dynasty in order to keep
everything "peaceful." However, cherishing the ambitions of aggression and
expansion, the Ly feudal rulers took advantage of the weakness of the Song
dynasty to "match their strength with that of the Song dynasty" and "repeat-
edly dispatched invading troops to occupy territory." (Zhang Jingxin:
"Resistance Against Vietnamese Aggression," Vol 2) Because Vietnam con-
tinually sent its troops to invade China and seize Chinese territory by
piecemeal encroachment, the local officials of the Song dynasty were com-
pelled to take measures against the Vietnamese invasion. At this juncture,
seeing that the Song dynasty was facing many difficulties in carrying out
the reform put forward by Wang Anshi, the Vietnamese rulers took the oppor-
tunity to launch a large-scale war of aggression against China under the
pretext that local Chinese officials were strengthening border defenses.
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Ly Thuong Kiet was supreme commander of this war of aggression. During the
time from the end of the 8th year to the beginning of the 9th year of the
Xining period of the reign of Emperor Shezong of the Song dynasty (1075-
1076 A.D.), Emperor Nhan-Ton of the Vietnamese Ly dynasty dispatched a large
army led by Ly Thuong Kiet to invade the border areas in China's Guangdong
and Guangxi and occupy Qinzhou,'Lianzhou and Yongzhou. The invading Viet-
namese troops wantonly burned, killed and looted wherever they went. In
Yongzhou alone, because a local official, Su Jian, led the people in a
dogged resistance, the invading troops commanded by Ly Thuong Kiet perpe-
trated a massacre, killing "more than 58,000 residents." In Yongzhou,
Qinzhou and Lianzhou, they "killed more than 100,000 people," "retreated but
took with them captives from these three places" and caused great damage.
("Complete History of Great Vietnam: Biographies of Emperors," Vol 3;
"Outlines of Vietnamese Comprehensive History," Vol 3; and "Continuation of
'Zi Zhi Chronological History of China,"' Vol 272) The invading army led by
Ly Thuong Kiet openly interfered with our country's internal affairs by
opposing the reform carried out by Wang Anshi. In every city or township
which it had invaded, it put up notices stating that the reform would
"afflict people with suffering, and our army has come to rescue the people."
("Outlines of Vietnamese Comprehensive History," Vol 3) These deeds of naked
aggression against our country and interference in our country'.s internal
affairs were historical facts of Ly Thuong Kiet's "punitive expedition to
China during the Song dynasty."' However, some Vietnamese historians por-
trayed Ly Thuong Kiet's invasion of our country as a preemptive strike of
"active self-defense" and "a unique creation" by him. ("Several Decisive
Strategic Battles in the History of the Vietnamese Nation") What absurd
logic!
Owing to Ly Thuong Kiet's invasion, the Song dynasty was compelled to launch
a counterattack and send Guo Kui and Zhao Xie to lead an expedition to Viet-
nam. Therefore, the Song dynasty's counterattack in self-defense was a just
war. According to the historical records of China and Vietnam, when the Song
army crossed the border and marched to Phu,Lang Giang, which was 35 li from
the capital, the Vietnamese army could not resist it and "Emperor Nhan-Ton
of the Ly dynasty was so daunted that he approached the Song army and nego-
tiated a surrender, in which he conceded the territories of To Mao Chau, Tu
Lang Chau, Mon Chau, Lang Chau and Quang Nguyen Chau and returned the cap-
tives who had been taken from China." Consequently, "Guo Kui withdrew his
troops." ("History of Song Dynasty: Biography of Emperor Shenzong";
"Continuation of 'Zi Zhi Chronological History of China,"' Vol 279; "Com-
plete History of Great Vietnam: Biographies of Emperors," Vol 3) After
suffering this defeat, the "Vietnamese lived in peace" and "did not make
trouble again, so that it was quiet on China's southern borders for a
century thereafter." ("Vietnam" in "General Study of Historical Documents,"
Vol 330)
Obviously, the Vietnamese feudal ruler at that time had overestimated his
strength. He sent an army to invade China but eventually surrendered when
the Vietnamese army was defeated by the Chinese army's counterattack. How-
ever, this battle was exaggerated by some Vietnamese historians as a "deci-
sive strategic battle" of resistance against China's "invasion," and called
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it "a battle of great victory at Nhu Nguyet Giang." Based on the single
sentence "Ly Thuong Kiet put up defensive works along the river" carried
in volume three of "Complete History of Great Vietnam," they set up for Ly
Thuong Kiet, who lived during the 11th century, a rather modernized "defense
line at Nhu Nguyet Giang" and drew a "sketch of the situation of the Nhu
Nguyet Giang counterattack." They also described the troop dispositions and
movements, the rear services, the joint operations of military and naval
units, and the leadership given by the supreme command, and summarized Ly
Thuong Kiet's "strategic thinking," and so forth. ("Several Decisive
Strategic Battles in the History of the Vietnamese Nation") They displayed
nothing but a sandtable illustrating the military operations of the National
Defense Ministry of the Le Duan clique against China. What sort of "histori-
cal works" these were!
Ly Thuong Kiet, who was an aggressor, was disguised by some Vietnamese
historians as a "national hero." Was this not an attempt to call up the
soul of a deceased person to serve the Vietnamese authorities' policy of
aggression and expansion?
True Features of the Theory That "Vietnam Does Not Have a History of
Aggression"
Some Vietnamese historians said nothing about the aggression and expansion
of the Vietnamese feudal rulers against neighboring countries. They tried
in every possible way to defend and exonerate the feudal rulers and describe
Vietnam's aggression against Kampuchea and Laos as "special friendship."
According to them, Vietnam was invaded and had never been an invader. This
was an out-and-out alteration of history.
An important characteristic of the feudal Vietnamese society was that rem-
nants of serfdom prevailed. Slave labor was widely employed on the large
farms owned by bureaucrats and aristocrats. The seizing of slaves was a
dominant motive of the Vietnamese feudal aristocrats in going in for aggres-
sion and expansion against another country. (Hisanori Wada: "Ancient
History of Southeast Asia," chapter 2, section 1) In the past, they not only
caused trouble to Chiem-Thanh and other neighboring states but also often
intruded into Chinese border areas to kidnap local residents, whom they sold
as slaves. ("Major Events During the Song Dynasty: Barbarians"; and "Gen-
eral Study of Historical Documents," Vol 330) Territorial expansion was
another motive of the Vietnamese feudal rulers in invading other countries.
When the feudal state of Vietnam was founded in the 10th century, its
territories included only the middle and lower reaches of the Hong Ha River
and the northern part of today's central Vietnam and was equal to one-
quarter of today's Vietnamese territories. The other territories were
acquired later by encroaching on neighboring countries.
Chiem-Thanh was the state which bore the brunt of the southward aggression
and expansion of the Vietnamese feudal rulers. Also called Champa, it was
a civilized ancient state different from Vietnam as a nation and in its
history and culture. It was founded in the 2d century, much earlier than
Vietnam. Its territories lay approximately in the central part of today's
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Vietnam. All its territories were gradually annexed by Vietnam through con
tinuous wars of aggression during the period from the middle of the 10th
century to the end of the 17th century. The Chiem-Thanh people were cul-
turally developed and ardently loved freedom. After losing their country,
some of them preferred to go to remote mountain areas to live with the
primitive tribes there than suffer the brutal rule and oppression of the
Vietnamese. With regard to the Vietnamese feudal rulers' annexation of
Chiem-Thanh, some Vietnamese historians called it a "southward advance."
They also described the wiping out of the Chiem-Thanh nation as "taking in
a neighboring nation which had a greater enterprising spirit." (Dao Duy
Anh: "Vietnamese Territories in Past Ages," Vietnamese version, p 182)
They sang the same tune as the old colonialists and imperialists!
Laos is Vietnam's neighbor on the west. In ancient times, it was called
Ai-Lao by the Vietnamese. There were many small states and tribes in the
territories of Laos before the 14th century. They were the objects of
Vietnamese expansion. According to the "Complete History of Great Vietnam,"
during the 3 centuries and more from the Ly dynasty to the Tran dynasty,
Vietnam launched 13 wars on a considerably large scale against Laos. In
August 1479, Vietnam dispatched 180,000 troops to invade Laos, capturing and
looting its capital Luang Prabang. In December of the same year, it again
amassed troops to attack Ban-Man (which is now the Xieng Khouang area in
Laos). Cam Cong, chief of Ban-Man, was killed in battle. The Vietnamese
aggressor troops destroyed the city of Xieng Khouang by burning it and
massacred its residents, causing a famine in the area. "At first, there
were 90,000'households in Ban-Man. They were starved. Only some 2,000
households survived." ("History of the Le Dynasty" in "Complete History of
Great Vietnam")
At the end of the 17th century, with Vietnam eventually subjugating Chiem-
Thanh, Trinh-Lap (Kampuchea) became its neighbor to the south. "Trinh-Lap
was Chiem-Thanh's neighbor to the south." (Zhao Rushi: "Laws of the State
of Zhenla (Trinh-Lap)" carried in "History of Vassal States," Vol 1) That
is to say, the southern part of Vietnam today was Kampuchean territory.
During the "period of the Nguyen princes" preceding the Vietnamese Nguyen
'dynasty, the Nguyen feudal ruling clique gradually nibbled on Kampuchea and
by the second half of the 18th century had already annexed half of the
Kampuchean territories. After its establishment in 1802, the Nguyen dynasty
turned the remaining part of Kampuchea into a "protectorate" under Viet-
namese military occupation.
While committing aggression against Kampuchea, the Nguyen dynasty continued
its expansion in Laos. It dispatched an army to Laos in 1827 and annexed
two-thirds of the Lao territories in more than a year's time, thereby
extending Vietnam's western boundaries to across the Truong Son Mountains
and further to the Mekong River, with Siam on the other side of the river.
Anti-Chinese Slander Aimed at Altering History
The Le Duan clique regards socialist China as its biggest obstacle in push-
ing its regional hegemony. Therefore, some Vietnamese historians, using the
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past to satirize the present, attack China by every possible means and create
anti-Chinese public opinion. Ignoring the facts, they deny that the
friendly exchanges between the Chinese and Vietnamese peoples were the
mainstream in the history of Sino-Vietnamese relations. They exaggerate
the contradiction between the Chinese and Vietnamese nations to be the
principal contradiction in Vietnamese history. They hold that the contra-
diction and struggle between the Chinese feudal dynasties on one side and
the Vietnamese ruling classes and people on the other side were the main
aspects of Vietnamese history. They say that Vietnamese history is a
history of continuous struggle against China. With utter absurdity, they
regard opposition to China as the most essential motive force in the
development of Vietnamese history.
Contradictions and struggles often occurred between slaves and their owners
and between peasants and feudal landlords in Vietnam. According to prelim-
inary statistics, peasants revolted on more than 300 occasions during the
period of the feudal society in Vietnam. It was precisely the struggle for
production and class struggle waged by the peasants that promoted the
development of the Vietnamese feudal society and formed the main content of
Vietnamese history. However, owing to their eagerness to oppose China, some
Vietnamese historians have even ignored this rudimentary historical
knowledge.
Taking the development of the history of Sino-Vietnamese relations as a
whole, it was undoubtedly the working people, and not the feudal rulers,
of China and Vietnam,who played the decisive role. In ancient times,
China's advanced production skills and cultural knowledge including the Han
written language were brought to Vietnam and played a positive role in
developing the productive forces in Vietnamese society, wiping out the
surviving elements of the primitive society and pushing the feudal society
forward. On the other hand, some farm products and fruits such as sweet
potato, longan and litchi were brought from Vietnam to China, enriching the
lives of the Chinese people. As a result of their long-term contacts, the
Chinese and Vietnamese people have some common habits and customs. For
example, they observe the same traditional festivals, such as the Spring
Festival, the Tomb Festival, the Dragon Boat Festival and the Moon Festival.
What especially cannot be forgotten is that the Chinese and Vietnamese people
voiced support for each other in their struggles against feudal oppression.
During the past century in particular, they sympathized with and supported
each other in their common struggle against colonialism and imperialism. In
the hard years during the Vietnamese wars against France and the United
States, the entire Chinese people gave strong backing to the Vietnamese
people, the vast Chinese territories became the reliable rear base of the
Vietnamese people, the Chinese people aided the Vietnamese people in many
ways, and the struggle of the Vietnamese people also aided the Chinese
people. The revolutionary friendship of the Chinese and Vietnamese people
was indeed cemented with blood.
With regard to the wars launched by the Chinese feudal rulers against
foreign countries, it must be admitted that since ancient times, China has
been a united, multinational country with a large population and vast
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territories. Contradictions between nationalities and classes were very
acute and complicated. The peasant uprisings and peasant wars in feudal
Chinese society had few parallels in frequency and scale in world history.
The resistance put up and struggles launched by the people of various
nationalities tied the feudal rulers' hands, preventing them from engaging
in foreign aggression and expansion. This was also true of China's rela-
tions with Vietnam in ancient times.
In the long history of contacts between China and Vietnam, real wars between
the two countries were very Short in duration and occurred only occasionally.
Compared with the historical' mainstream of friendly contacts between the
Chinese and Vietnamese peoples, they were just like a few small tributaries.
For almost all the time, the Chinese and Vietnamese people maintained
friendly contacts and got along well with each other.
We respect historical facts. We do not deny that some Chinese feudal rulers
launched wars of aggression against Vietnam; neither do we defend them.
Historical research should not be separated from concrete historical condi-
tions. The Chinese people at that time were powerless because they were
oppressed by feudal rulers. The Chinese feudal rulers launched wars of
aggression against Vietnam and drove large groups of soldiers and workmen
to "brave the heat of the sun and the attack of miasma" and to die for them.
Fundamentally, this ran counter to the wishes and interests of the Chinese
people. The Chinese people were against it. Therefore, the Chinese people
at that time should not be held responsible for this; nor should the Chinese
people today be required to take historical responsibility for what the
feudal rulers did. Similarly, the Vietnamese people should not be held
responsible for the foreign aggression and expansion launched by the Viet-
namese feudal rulers in the past. However, some Vietnamese historians do not
like this. They try to seize on the launching of wars against Vietnam by
Chinese feudal rulers and make an issue of it. They want the Chinese people
today to pay the debts of the past feudal rulers.. In this way, they can
create a historical basis for the Vietnamese authorities' policy of opposing
and hating China.
From the several points mentioned above, we can see that with the Le Duan
'clique embarking on the road of political degeneration, historiography in
Vietnam today has degenerated into false historiography serving regional
hegemonism.
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IT IS NECESSARY TO PAY SIMULTANEOUS ATTENTION TO PLANTING AND PROTECTING
TREES
Beijing RED FLAG in Chinese No 7, 1 Apr 82 inside back cover
[Article by Li Mingfu [2621 2494 4395]]
[Text] "The Resolution on Unfolding an All-People Voluntary Tree-Planting
Movement" adopted by the 4th Session of the 5th NPC points out: "Planting
trees everywhere in the country is a great cause for building socialism and
for benefiting future generations, and is a major strategic measure for
regulating mountains and rivers and protecting and improving the ecologic
environment." In recent years, the broad masses of cadres and people have
realized, to a certain extent, the significance of planting trees and carry-
ing out afforestation. Every year a great deal of manpower and financial
resources are spent on this task. The current problem lies in the fact that
a large number of trees have been planted, but only a small number of them
survive. As the masses summed up, no trees can be seen after planting trees
and no forests can be formed although afforestation has been carried out.
Luannan County in Tangshan Prefecture, where a good job of planting trees
was done, is an example. There, 2.68 million trees were planted in 1977,
1.34 million of which survived, giving a survival rate of 50 percent; 1.5
million trees were planted in 1978, 820,000 of which survived, giving a
survival rate of 54.7 percent; 1.82 million trees were planted in 1979,
690,000 of which survived, giving a survival rate of 37.9 percent; 2.34
million trees were planted in 1980, 710,000 of which survived, giving a
survival rate of 30.3 percent; 1.66 million trees were planted in 1981,
659,000 of which survived, giving a survival rate of 39.7 percent. A total
number of 10 million trees have been planted in the last 5 years in this
county, 4.219 million of which have survived, giving a survival rate of 42.2
percent. Besides the low survival rate, the conservation rate and the rate
of growth into useful timber were even lower. This mainly resulted from the
tendency of laying stress on planting trees but, neglecting tree protection.
The neglect to tend trees can be found in the following three aspects:
1) Owing to the view of putting,. completion of assignments above everything
else, some localities are only concerned about the number of trees planted
and disregard the survival of these trees. 2) Perfected measures are not
taken to protect trees. The seedlings are eaten by pigs and goats, but no
one assumes responsibility. 3) The responsibility system in forestry pro-
duction has not been established in many localities and the forestry
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policies have not been put into effect. The initiative of the masses in
planting trees has not been aroused. Unless the above problems are solved,
forestry production can never be rapidly developed.
Practice in many localities shows that, as in developing agricultural pro-
duction, success in planting trees and conducting afforestation must rely
on implementing correct policies and making use of science. In order to do
a good job of planting trees and carrying out afforestation, to effectively
raise the rates of survival, conservation and timber formation and to
realize the goal of making the land of our country green, we should, first
of all, take further steps to implement the forestry policies that trees
planted by the state are owned by the state, those planted by communes or
production teams are owned respectively by them, and those planted in com-
mon are owned in common. The trees planted by commune members around their
houses or at places designated by production teams should always be owned by
individual members. Wherever the policies of fixing farm output quotas for
each household and assigning the households full responsibility for task
completion are implemented, those scattered trees and forest belts near farm
fields formerly owned by collectives can all be contracted to households or
individuals. No matter what kind of production responsibility system is
adopted, the'ownership of trees cannot be changed, tree farms'and seedling
nurseries owned by communes or production teams cannot be broken up or
weakened.
Second, various forms of the responsibility system in forestry production
should be conscientiously implemented. Attention should be paid to local
special conditions and the responsibility system should take a form that
most of the masses are willing to accept. It is necessary to contract out
the existing forests owned by collectives, particularly forests stretching
over a wide area and backbone forests, to full-time personnel specially
assigned to protect trees. Small areas of scattered trees and forests can
be contracted out by fixing a price for households or individuals. Measures
can be taken to preserve the value of forests, to fairly dividing benefits
in proportion to the increase in value. In the future, trees can be planted
in a unified plan, afforestation work can be divided and assigned to each
household. While leaving the ownership of forests with production teams,
responsibility for forest management should be assigned to individuals, with
profits shared by the production team and the individual. It is imperative
to lay emphasis on the quality of planting trees. Survival should be
actually guaranteed as a part of the assignments for planting trees.
Third, perfected organizations should be established and scientific measures
should be taken for protecting forests and planting trees. The past experi-
ence and lessons whereby a large number of trees were planted, but only a
small number survived, and an even smaller number grew into forests with
useful timber, should be conscientiously summed up. Great efforts should be
made to carry out afforestation scientifically and to take good care of
forests. In particular, we should do a good job in selecting tree strains
suited to the land, nursing good and strong seedlings, preparing the soil
with sufficient base of fertilizer, planting trees carefully and in rational
density, and tending and protecting trees for a long time. Organizations for
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tending forests should be established and perfected in places where such
organizations do not exist. Systems of rewards and penalties should be
laid down on a feasible basis, so as to fully arouse the initiative of the
personnel in charge of tending and protecting forests and to actually
guarantee the survival and growth of trees. At the same time, rewards
should,be granted to people who plant a large number of trees with high
rates of survival, conservation and timber-formation.
Fourth, in the future, while counting numbers of trees planted, the depart-
ments concerned should pay more attention to counting the number of trees
that survive. Assignments in tree planting and methods of rewards and
penalties should take the number that survive as the standard.
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